Page 1976 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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The concerns of Owen flats residents range from rubbish accumulating at these flats as tenants move out to mail redirection, to insurance and, of course, to the time frames. It is my understanding that tenants are concerned about being out of pocket from the move, just as any of us would be concerned about how much it would cost us to move. Out-of-pocket expenses on gas and electricity reconnections, on mail redirection and on telephone connections will be a burden on their already low incomes. In addition, they might have to take one or more days off work in order to move, and what will that mean?
The feedback I have received from Owen flats residents includes that they are experiencing not only financial stress but also psychological stress as a result of the relocation. They feel that beggars can’t be choosers, as though they do not have the right to voice their concerns and they must accept whatever is handed to them. ACT residents who are public housing tenants deserve safe and secure housing with access to transport, education and training opportunities, employment and support services.
As you know, I love talking about light rail because it is so deeply unpopular in my electorate of Brindabella, where people know it will never take place. My concern about the light rail in this instance today is about more than opposing light rail per se; it is about the disregard for public housing tenants along that corridor. Under this government, these public housing properties have been allowed to deteriorate to the point where they are almost uninhabitable. The residents themselves say that they cannot live there any longer because they are in such a state.
But why and how has this government allowed public housing along Northbourne Avenue to deteriorate to that state? Was it just a ploy to legitimise demolishing the properties to make way for light rail? This decline of what was once decent and affordable public housing to run-down dens of squalor, if not iniquity, is one of the more distressing failures of welfare policy in the territory. Those are not my words; that is from the Canberra Times of 9 May this year. It goes on to say that the government is now moving to sell off run-down but still adequate public housing complexes with what seems like indecent haste.
In 2012, Mr Barr issued phase 3 of the government’s affordable housing action plan. Phase 3 introduced a set of 14 new actions aimed at improving housing affordability in the ACT. In the words of RiotACT at the time:
One would be hard pressed to describe phases one and two of the Affordable Housing Action Plan as a raging success.
It continued:
But undeterred Andrew Barr announced Phase III and promised Labor will be “continuing to deliver on our commitment for more affordable housing” which—
RiotACT went on to say:
… as strings of weasel words go is deserving of posterity.
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