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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 328 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

I believe there can be no doubt that ACT Housing, as an organisation, takes its responsibilities as an asset manager seriously but has difficulty in coming to grips with the need to provide support. Similarly, while the minister has expressed considerable interest in the wellbeing of tenants, the separation between the department and ACT Housing has quite often seen people fall through the cracks. If we are going to focus public housing as welfare housing, and even if it is public housing with a mix of situations, then it is vitally important to provide the support services, or at least the links and encouragement to go to support services.

There is tension between being a landlord and providing support. This is well understood in the community sector and in government circles. I have raised that in relation to other housing set-ups. I realise that, but there is still an important gap here.

We have the specialist tenancy managers, whose role is to help people when they are not coping and make sure they are getting support. I do not know what is going wrong there. Maybe there are just too many tenants in trouble and not enough managers. I have heard from people who have run into trouble in their personal lives, which flows on to financial problems, including rent problems, which go on for a considerable length of time.

The process for managing debts does not seem to adequately trigger this support system. Because the community workers are fairly new, it may take time for results to show. However, it is positive-it is about prevention, in some ways, and facilitating community building.

The disturbing factor about some of the evictions I have become aware of is the interaction between Housing and the tenants-that they do not make the most of the possibilities for keeping tenants housed. Further, as I have indicated, the brief was taken by Housing to the Tenancy Tribunal, which was supposed to be a less intimidating forum for resolution of Housing problems than a court. Instead of it being used as a forum to discover what is going on, it has been described to me by one tenant, who I have known for some time, as a personal attack on her as a credible or reliable person.

The bitter irony of saying that ACT Housing cannot have this person because they are not reliable is very obvious. Where will they go? Housing is an essential service-public housing is where people have to live. I am not saying that we must keep people no matter what they do. I am saying we have a responsibility to make sure that everything possible to assist or support people is being done. Maybe that means an outreach service to assist with maintaining housing for people with mental illnesses. That came up in the annual reports and in the status of women report. That could work in both the private and public areas.

Victoria has recorded good results with that kind of service, but it needs to be an ongoing service. It is not just about dropping off a letter mentioning that people from CARE are available for budget counselling. For people with mental illnesses, it is about regular ongoing contact so that, if the situation starts to deteriorate, that fact will be picked up before the rent gets into arrears and the neighbours become upset. The Select Committee on the Role of Public Housing recommended looking at an essential services review committee type of arrangement for housing. I still think it would be interesting to see that happen.

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