Housing

Which Convention Articles relate to Housing Issues?

Article 27: Right to adequate standard of living

State Parties 'shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.'

Article 20: Protection of children without families
Article 24: Right to health and health services
Article 26: Right to social security
Article 19: Protection from abuse and neglect
Article 15: Freedom of association

What are the Human Rights issues in Victoria relating to Housing?

Homelessness - and risk of homelessness

Definitions - definitions of homelessness vary and often serve very different purposes, e.g. Governments use service delivery definitions to identify eligibility for particular services, while agencies might use advocacy definitions to draw attention to broader issues surrounding homelessness. However, there now appears to be an emerging consensus about how homelessness is understood in Australia. Using a shared 'community standard' benchmark about the minimum housing that people in Australia have the right to expect, agreement pertaining to definitions follows a three tier model of the homeless population:

Primary homelessness: without conventional accommodations (living on the streets, sleeping in parks, squatting in derelict buildings, cars or railway carriages).
Secondary homelessness: moving around from one form of temporary accommodation to another (emergency accommodation, youth refuges, residing with friends or relatives, boarding houses on occasional or intermittent basis).
Tertiary homelessness: living in single rooms on a medium to long term basis, such as private boarding houses, without separate bedroom and living room, without separate kitchen and bathroom facilities, not self-contained, no security of tenure provided by lease.

Lack of economic and social support.
Difficulties in accessing social security payments especially in situations of instability and limited mobility.
Cut off from family and friends.
Few independent resources.
No/few means or prospect of self-support.
Danger of falling below poverty line.
Difficult to access drug rehabilitation/withdrawal services (many lack residential component).
Difficulties faced with criminal justice system - failure to appear.
Difficulties in keeping appointments - leads to problems in accessing services.
Homelessness is not only an issue in larger cities - 41% of Victorian SAAP clients were not in Melbourne when they sought assistance.

Contributing factors include: family conflict, including family violence and abuse, family poverty and resulting stresses, high incidence of youth unemployment and increased dependency of young people, a history of state intervention and wardship, substance use and mental and physical illness.

Related Issues: Homeless young people may turn to sex work for economic survival, with consequent vulnerability to violence, sexual exploitation, drug use, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, poor health, malnutrition and difficulties accessing education, training and social security.

Private rental issues

Access to private rental market is extremely limited.
Uncertain legal enforceability of leases signed by young people under 18 years.
Real estate agents discriminate against prospective renters, especially young people. Anyone on Centrelink payments is considered not to have'permanent' income (regardless of age).
Lack of affordable housing - matching to income security.
Between 1986 and 1996 the private rental sector expanded by approximately 28%, but the stock available at the lower end (weekly rents below $120) of the market fell by 20%.
Annual funding for rent assistance increased by 400% from 1986-96, but has not resulted in greater access to the private rental market.

Public Rental issues

Lack of access to public housing - age limits.
Lack of public housing stock due to government sell off.
Waiting list in Victoria at the end of June 1998 was 53,379 households.
Net value of the Commonwealth funding under the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement (CSHA) has fallen by nearly $200,000 (nearly one third of annual funding) between 1984/5 - 1997/8.

Specific Discrimination issues faced by young people

Discrimination in service provision by police, schools, estate agents, housing policies and Centrelink.

What can non-government agencies and local government do - at the policy level?

Review intake policies to ensure the service is accessible and has an open door policy.
Define the role and responsibilities of lead tenants.
Provide better resourcing of lead tenants.
Define responsibility of care, continuity of care, what is care?
Provide better support for informal care arrangements.
Ensure services are culturally appropriate.
Youth housing: Acknowledge that 12-15 months is not long enough; segmented waiting list, fast track is not appropriate process for young people.
Ensure policies prioritise to keep young people within their communities and provide resources to support this.
Ensure young people's environment is taken account of, such as young people who are parents, young people in same sex relationships.
Private rentals: advocate for real rental subsidies to improve housing options.
Investigate further where the statutory system currently breaches the Convention.
Advocate that the statutory system increase options available, that are properly resourced and provide an improved standard of training for carers.
Ensure housing for young people is flexible and based on alternative models.

What can non-government agencies and local government do - in service delivery?

Simplify processes/administrative forms.
Improve awareness of entry points to housing services.
Look into the cheaper options in terms of the Convention. Are caravan parks appropriate housing for young people?
Improve the size, model and environment of refuges.

What can non-government agencies and local government do - in advocacy?

Advocate for housing to be recognised as a basic need.
Advocate for safer housing options for young people, after hours services, more refuges and exit options. Recognise that the needs of young people are different to those of young children.
Advocate for more children's domestic violence outreach workers in each region.
Advocate for government policies to reflect that women's housing should be based on the needs of children.
Advocate for more housing to keep families within their own environment and community - families should be able to nominate the suburb in which they wish to live, to avoid families being displaced in areas where they do not have support or do not feel connected with the community.

What does government (State and Commonwealth) need to do?

Improve resourcing to early intervention and prevention programs (e.g. maternal & child health programs, programs through community houses).
Fund housing services for a range of activities, not just core services e.g. planning, debriefing.
Provide infrastructure to support new housing developments.
Define housing broadly.
Establish a Commission for Children and Young People and youth accountability measures.
Undertake community campaigns educating the community about the Convention.
Increase youth and family incomes: current Centrelink levels of payments are inadequate.
Ensure parity between housing policies and Centrelink policies.
Ensure Centrelink provides a more flexible approach to administrative breaches because of homelessness.
Investigate government regulation of the private rental market.
Incorporate the Convention into policy across all areas of Government including evaluation processes such as the current reviews by the State government of the homelessness strategy, youth strategy and Segmented Waiting List.
Commit more resources towards housing to meet the identified needs.