Download Working together for better housing and sustainable communities

Queensland
QueenslandAdvocacy
Advocacy
AdvocacyIncorporated
Incorporated
Queensland
Incorporated
Our mission is to promote, protect and defend, through advocacy, the fundamental needs
and rights and lives of the most vulnerable people with disability in Queensland.
Systems and Legal Advocacy for vulnerable people with Disability
Submission Response to the Discussion Paper
Working together for better
housing and sustainable
communities
A
HOME
OF ONE’S OWN
“a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment; also : the focus of one's domestic
attention <home is where the heart is>”
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be
questioned.”
Maya Angelou
“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
Confucius
Ph: (07) 3844 4200 or 1300 130 582 Fax: (07) 3844 4220 Email: [email protected] Website: www.qai.org.au
2nd Floor, South Central, 43 Peel Street, STH BRISBANE QLD 4101
QAI endorses the objectives, and promotes the principles, of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Patron: His Excellency The Honorable Paul de Jersey AC
About QAI
Queensland Advocacy Incorporated is a community-based, systems and individual advocacy
organisation and community legal service for people with disability. Our mission is to promote,
protect and defend the fundamental needs of the most vulnerable people with disability in
Queensland. QAI does this by engaging in campaigns directed to attitudinal, law and policy
change, and by advocacy initiatives of state and of national significance.
About this submission
Our focus is to support the rights of persons with disabilities, who live in all Queensland
communities and who include people from every class, ethnicity, gender and creed.
Successfully addressing the housing needs of people with disabilities inevitably means
successfully addressing the housing needs of other Queenslanders.
In this submission we address those questions that are most relevant to Queenslanders with
disability, particularly the most vulnerable people with disability in this State.
1. Q1. How do we create an environment that enables a human services approach
to housing that puts people at the centre in Queensland?
Adopt a person-centred approach to service delivery. So far, this consultation is a
commendable example. We are each experts in our own lives, and a human services
approach discovers and then acts on the things that are important to a person, through
listening, learning, and focussing on what works and does not work now and in the future, and
then acting on this.
2. Q2. What do the department and other service partners need to do to operate
more effectively as human service providers?

Invest time and resources into community consultations.
o
Consultations need to be relevant to something that people are invested in,
that is, a consultation will not work unless people know they have something to
gain, or lose.

Focus on outcomes

Be culturally appropriate
o
Employ and support staff members who have disabilities, indigenous staff, and
people from CALD backgrounds.
3. Q4. What are the opportunities for the non-government sector (private and
community) to achieve better outcomes for people and communities through
housing?
Developers respond to financial incentives, cash or in kind, to build affordable and accessible
housing. Government will need to experiment with a variety of incentives, such as
inclusionary zoning. Similarly the supply side may be supplemented if private landlords were
offered encouragement to rent to public/social housing eligible people who have subsidised
rent. As most tenants in public housing will be interested in long term tenancies this would
provide consistency and security for landlords in a mutually beneficial arrangement.
4. Q5. Do existing legislative frameworks provide the right level of protections for
housing consumers and how could they be improved to ensure fairer and more
equitable access to housing?

Queensland residential tenancy regulation: Remove the right of rooming house
lessors - known as 'providers' - to evict residents by issuing a section 370 'Notice to
leave immediately because of serious breach'. The law supports a lessor's use of
'reasonable force' to evict any resident with immediate effect.

The power to make 'without grounds' evictions is a trump card that strips the
tenant/resident of all other tenancy rights. The resident has no legal remedy when, for
example, the lessor summarily evicts them because the resident complained about
the state of the common areas, or the need for repairs. 'Without grounds' eviction is a
lessor's catch-all retaliatory back-up when a tenant/resident seeks to assert a tenancy
right.
A note on disability housing provision
The most visible form of homelessness is people living on the streets and in public
spaces/parks, and the best strategy to house them is to invest in community housing
and community housing providers. QAI is particularly concerned, though, about the
kind of homelessness that we don't see. Some people live in overcrowded dwellings,
sleeping on couches and the like; others live in boarding houses and hostels, about
which is discussed more later, but the kind of homelessness we are most concerned
about is that experienced by people with disabilities living in group homes run by
disability service providers.
People living in group or congregate care are not only subject to rules and restrictions
not of their own making; they rarely have any choice about where and with whom they
live. They live with their housemates simply because they, too, have disabilities.
Consider for a moment the injustice of having no choice but to live with other people
simply because you share a common physical characteristic, like red hair or blue
eyes, and not because you have common interests or like one another's personalities.
This kind of sharing is a 'forced co-tenancy'. It is contrary to the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 19 - 'Living independently and being
included in the community’ which states that:
States Parties to this Convention recognize the equal right of all persons with
disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and shall take
effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment by persons with
disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community,
including by ensuring that:
Persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence
and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not
obliged to live in a particular living arrangement."
Queensland Advocacy Incorporated's 'Human Rights Indicators for People with
Disability' elaborates Article 19, asking 'Who, or what, determines the accommodation
choices available to persons with disability?'
It is a forced co-tenancy when you are a woman with a disability placed into a dwelling
with a man who has, for example, an Acquired Brain Injury, as a result of which he
daily lashes out at you with physical and verbal abuse; or you are a man who has
been placed with a non-verbal woman who constantly moans, twitches, screams and
cries, causing distress to all around her.
The state government should abandon the practice of congregating people with
disability together with other people with disability because of the misconception that it
is cheaper to do it that way, since the residents are unlikely or unable to object. Such
superficial economics fail to account for the costs of damaged lives, breakdown of
families and informal supports, engagement of advocacy and criminal justice, costs to
and ill-health of communities.
The state government must do its part to provide people with disabilities with the
resources they need to enable them to live independently i.e. appropriate support, and
a real choice about where they live. Despite the NDIS, the Queensland state
government will continue to provide funds, directly, or indirectly, to service providers
who run congregate care arrangements.
5. Q6. Are there differences in issues and approaches for housing that need to be
considered in rural, remote and regional communities?
No-one is better placed to identify those issues than the members of those communities. It is
highly likely that different housing types, locations and accessibility will be pertinent to each
community and quite different to each other.
THEME 2: HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
6. Q7. How can we improve people’s access to housing by making better use of
existing assets, subsidies and incentives? For example, incentivising the
market and non-government sector to respond to people and communities.
Supply-side Strategies

Stamp duties should be replaced by extended land tax.

Land tax should be restructured so as to have a broader base, and are applied
progressively according to the ‘per square metre’ value of a property.

Government funding for housing has shifted over the past 50 years from direct capital
investment in affordable housing properties, to providing preferential tax treatment for
investment in private housing with rent assistance for people on lower incomes,
leading to enormous shortfall.

Rather than funding supply growth, the NAHA (Commonwealth distribution to the
states) has acted as an operational subsidy to the states to prop-up a system in which
rents no longer cover operating costs.

Improve social inclusion for persons with a disability by providing more social
housing that accommodates the needs of this vulnerable group and avoiding having
concentrations of such groups in particular clusters. Social housing is often the only
viable and sustainable option for people with disability who are wholly dependent on
their disability pension and other Centrelink benefits.

Improve the flexibility and personalisation of landlord services by transferring stateowned low-income housing to the administration of community providers and
expanding the opportunity for community-managed low-cost housing initiatives. The
expectation is for such providers to respect and adhere to the principles outlined
within this paper.

Housing assistance provides stability for those who may otherwise have no sense of
control over their lives; improves resilience and independence especially in relation to
health, family relationships and monetary concerns; reduces exposure to very-high
housing costs and the risk of eviction; and makes it more likely that residents will gain
and retain paid employment.

Pensioners and people dependent on welfare or disability payments are priced out of
the private rental market, and face fierce competition for social housing - a much
needed safety net. An adequate supply of social housing means older Australians are
better able to age in place and not have to forgo daily essentials simply to pay their
rent. People with disability are not left to fend for themselves in substandard
dwellings that make no allowance for their particular needs. Women escaping
domestic violence are not forced to stay in motels or, worse still, remain in abusive
relationships. Social housing is better able to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups
as it offers lower rents, more secure and stable tenure and appropriately modified
housing, but supply is limited and waiting lists far too long. When people with
disability have access to secure, appropriate and affordable homes, they become
more productive members of the community, easing demand on health, police and
other social services.

The heavy demand means that people have to demonstrate that they are in greater
need than others on the waiting list, while those already housed in community housing
have to demonstrate their continuing disadvantage to remain eligible.

Rather than encourage people to improve their circumstances, for example through
gaining employment or working extra hours, the shortage of affordable housing and
the need to demonstrate disadvantage has the opposite effect, creating a poverty trap.

Community housing providers do not stop at providing an affordable home, often they
have established and strong links with providers across a range of social services, if
not providing such services themselves. QAI opposes ‘one-stop-shop/wrap-around’
approaches to service provision like the Common Ground model. This approach
raises stigma and encourages dependency. Similarly, group homes that are owned
by the providers of support services are rife with issues surrounding eviction of
vulnerable people who raise concerns or complaint about their service, or abuse form
co-tenants.

The inadequate supply of social housing affects people with specific needs most
keenly. Government must continue to fund public housing, lift the number of public
houses as a percentage of Australia's housing stock, and commit to achieving a
higher proportion of overall social housing as a percentage of Australia's housing
stock. This additional investment in social housing should go some way to ensuring
that people with special needs are housed in affordable and appropriate houses.
There is a particular shortage of emergency housing, especially for women and
children escaping domestic violence.
Demand-side Strategies

Shared and mixed equity loans/ Shared appreciation mortgages/Equity finance
mortgages
Some commercial banks and financial institutions offer shared equity products in
cooperation with social housing providers and government agencies. Shared equity
loans allow borrowers to secure higher finance for a purchase, but they must share
the increase in value when the property is sold or refinanced. They are a potentially
useful means by which vulnerable groups with particular housing needs might be
assisted into home ownership. People with a disability (and their families) may have
a small source of capital that is sufficient to exclude them from access to social
housing but insufficient to allow them to purchase a home, given that incomes of
people with a disability are often low. There may be cost-benefits for the government
in providing assistance in the form of equity to allow home purchase. WA’s ‘Keystart’
program, for example, has been successful.
The downsides are:
o
That the borrower must find the funds to repay the bank for the part of the
house that has been on standby, plus profits, by either refinancing or selling
up.
o
More broadly, these products introduce liquidity into the lower end of the
market, and inflate prices.
o
Shared Equity Loans make it easier to get into the market, but reduce potential
capital gains.

Improve tenancy regulation, focussing on the dignity of conditions as well as
affordability.

Regulate tenant ‘blacklists’ by using privacy laws.

Social housing policy reform

o
eliminate ‘anti-social behaviour’ provisions and replace with supports to
promote harmony in multiple dwellings, neighbourliness.
o
Adopt preventative and trust-based approaches.
o
Provide independently reviewable decisions.
Tenancy advice and advocacy, anti-discrimination measures and complaint
mechanisms
o

fund out of bond capital
COAG endorsed the National Disability Strategy 2010–2020 (the Strategy) in 2011.
The Strategy sets out six priority areas for action. Housing is covered under
objectives ‘Inclusive and accessible communities’ and ‘Economic security’. The
Strategy recognises the importance of anti-discrimination measures, complaints
mechanisms and advocacy, all of which have an important role in ensuring that people
with disability are treated fairly in the rental market.
o
Place a higher priority on the obligations and responsibility of landlords when it
comes to house modifications for those with particular housing needs.
o
Introduce measure such as tax incentives to encourage landlords to improve
the energy efficiency of their properties and to make required modifications for
tenants with disability.
7. Q10. How should the department work with its partners to extend the supply of
social housing? For example, renewal of the existing social housing portfolio
and financing and developing new supply.

Encourage the Federal Government to clarify the tax status of community housing
providers (CHPs) so that they can engage in non-for-profit trading activities without
risking their charitable exemption.

Provide access to a pool of low-cost long-term private funding (for example, a new
asset class of private investment in rental housing, underpinned by a government
finance mechanism- e.g. ‘housing supply bonds’.

Urban planning, land and building regulation measures such as
o
facilitate land availability
o
inclusionary zoning incentives such as
o

accelerated application processing in exchange for affordable housing

reduced application fees in exchange for affordable housing
planning to encourage innovative design
8. Q12. What is the role of local governments in housing affordability and how can
the state better support this? For example, if we provided incentives, or
implemented ‘inclusionary zoning’ for affordable housing at a local government
level, where (or how) would you see this working and what would it deliver?
Queensland had rent control for a few years during the acute post-WWII housing shortage,
but a few un-renovated inner-city Queenslanders still operating as boarding houses are the
only remnants of a crisis that ebbed as developers subdivided, creating new estates in 'outer'
suburbs like Mt Gravatt, Aspley, Strathpine, Logan etc. and made home ownership more
affordable through the 1950s & 1960s.
To increase supply now we need a variety of ‘supply and demand’ side strategies, including:

Replace stamp duties with an extended land tax, restructured so applied progressively
according to value per sq. metre.

Expand opportunities for community-managed low-cost housing by –
o
enabling housing companies to access underutilised land in areas where there
is sufficient amenities and service infrastructure in order to avoid the creation
of ghettos in outlying isolated areas.
o
legislating (Cth) to allow social housing providers to engage in trading activities
without losing their charitable status
o
encouraging partnerships between local and state governments (like the BHC)
for direct capital investment in affordable housing.
Theme 3: Responsive Housing System
9. Q13. What should be the roles and relationship of government and the nongovernment sector in the delivery of homelessness and housing assistance in
the future?

Homelessness services are most efficiently run by smaller non-government
organisations that are well-connected to sector networks, and particularly to housing
supply networks and other services that address legal, personal, tenancy, financial,
employment and health issues.
10. Q14. How do we better develop and integrate the housing and homelessness
service systems so they operate as one housing assistance system centred on
peoples’ needs and what is required to make this happen?

The ‘One Social Housing’ system has been reasonably successful in providing a level
playing field for accommodation seekers, eliminating circumstantial and regional
inequities. Community housing providers should retain the ability to make qualitative
assessments about potential residents.
11. Q16. How can government support innovation in the development of
mechanisms that increase the finance, resources and investment available for
homelessness and housing assistance?

Encourage provision of shared and mixed equity loans, shared appreciation
mortgages and equity finance mortgages.
Some commercial banks and financial institutions offer shared equity products in
cooperation with social housing providers and government agencies. Shared equity
loans allow borrowers to secure higher finance for a purchase, but they must share
the increase in value when the property is sold or refinanced.
They are a potentially useful means by which vulnerable groups with particular
housing needs might be assisted into home ownership. People with a disability (and
their families) may have a small source of capital that is sufficient to exclude them
access to social housing but insufficient to allow them to purchase a home, given that
incomes of people with a disability are often low. There may be cost-benefits for the
government in providing assistance in the form of equity to allow home purchase.
WA’s ‘Keystart’ program has been successful.
Encourage access to a pool of low-cost long-term private funding, such as a new
asset class of private investment in rental housing. This will need a government
underpinned finance mechanism, and would be cheaper than Social Housing
Initiatives.
……………………………….