Page 1034 - Week 04 - Thursday, 1 April 1993
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I have also received a further briefing from Mr Ken Horsham, General Manager of the ACT Housing and Community Services Bureau, and Mr Rod Templar, Commissioner for Housing, and I have received a copy of the ACT submission to the Industry Commission inquiry into public housing dated March 1993. I have requested further information from the trust, in particular a timeline of major reforms over the years and interstate comparisons, and have spoken with people who have had long and considerable experience with the operations of the trust.
I have concluded that an inquiry by the Assembly's Social Policy Committee into the operations of the ACT Housing Trust is not justified. I now propose to explain to the Assembly why I believe that such an inquiry is not justified. As I see it, Mr Cornwell's concerns about the operations of the ACT Housing Trust centre on four main issues. They are rental arrears, maintenance, waiting lists, and behaviour of Housing Trust tenants. I intend to address each of these four areas of concern in turn.
Firstly, on the question of rental arrears, Mr Cornwell claims that 50 per cent of ACT Housing Trust tenants are in arrears with their payments of rent and that these arrears total $4.5m. The apparently high level of rental arrears principally relates to a significant change in the collection of rent from tenants due to the installation of the computer system. Tenants are now required to pay their rents two weeks in advance rather than in arrears. I agree that, as this is the ACT Housing Trust's policy and decision to align the payment of rent with what happens in the private sector, and as this policy will particularly disadvantage low income earners, it is appropriate that the change from payment of rent in arrears to rent in advance happens gradually over an appropriate period of time which will not disadvantage tenants.
There are 3,800 tenants - the majority of the 6,900 tenants who are in arrears with their payments of rent for less than two weeks - still adjusting to the change of policy which the installation of the computer system has brought upon them. I can imagine the distress that some ACT Housing Trust tenants must feel at being behind in their payment of rent possibly for the first time, receiving regular rental notices which indicate that their rents are now in arrears. These arrears account for $2.65m. There are a further 1,300 tenants in arrears between two and four weeks, and the trust has negotiated arrears payments with 1,600 of the 2,300 ACT Housing Trust tenants who are over four weeks in arrears with their rental payments, accounting for a further $1.63m. So, of the $5m in rent which the Minister has said is outstanding, valid explanations exist for $4.28m. This leaves a total of $720,000 in rent that is more unlikely to be recoverable.
The trust has introduced due process for the recovery of rental arrears, which is entirely appropriate. The information provided by the computer easily identifies tenants in rental arrears. Regular statements on the status of their rent accounts are provided to tenants, letters are sent to tenants when their accounts are 21 days in arrears, and personal contact with tenants is made by officers of the trust, either by visit or by telephone, to resolve rental arrears. There is an expectation that rental arrears will be paid by tenants, the emphasis being on the gradual recovery of arrears, and further stress is not placed on the family. Applying pressure to the family to pay outstanding rental arrears immediately would result only in the likelihood of tenants approaching the Smith Family, for example, for alternative assistance.
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