|
|
[Home] [Help] [Databases] [WorldLII] [Feedback] |
|
Alternative Law Journal |
Jane Lye is a solicitor employed by the Legal Aid Commission NSW, and a
member of the Boarders and Lodgers Action Group.
The views expressed in this article are her own and do not
necessarily reflect the published views of the Legal Aid Commission
NSW.
The Olympic Games are being marketed as an unparalleled business
opportunity for Sydney. But for vulnerable people such as boarding house
residents, this event is exacerbating problems they already have in finding
safe, secure and affordable accommodation.
Boarding houses provide a cheap form of supported accommodation. It is
estimated that in 1995, almost 20,000 people in New South Wales lived in
boarding house accommodation.[1]
Boarding house residents tend to be people who would have difficulty finding
alternative accommodation[2] or who
gravitate towards this form of accommodation because they have special
needs.[3]
Boarding house residents are some of the most vulnerable members of our
society. Many of them are unemployed, elderly; or suffering from a mental
illness or disability; many are living on an extremely low income, with a high
rate of dependence on pensions and
benefits.[4]
Further, boarding house residents enjoy little legal protection. Their
accommodation agreements are excluded from the application of the Residential
Tenancies Act 1987, so that they are denied access to the simple and
affordable legal remedies available to other tenants in New South Wales when
disputes arise concerning their accommodation.
These disadvantages have led to a significant disparity in bargaining power
between residents and boarding house owners. There is no control over the rents
and other fees that can be charged to these residents, and owners can impose any
terms or conditions they wish on accommodation.
Boarding house residents can be evicted from their premises with little or
no notice. The common law requires owners to obtain an order for possession from
the Supreme Court before they can forcibly evict a boarding house resident.
However, in practice this does not occur, and objecting residents are usually
immediately removed by force, often with police assistance.
In 1994 a report commissioned by Shelter NSW predicted that the Olympics
would lead to the conversion of boarding houses and other low cost accommodation
to tourist accommodation, resulting in the displacement of low income tenants in
Sydney. It also predicted an upward impact on rental prices generally in
Sydney.[5] Another report commissioned
by Shelter NSW suggested this event will be analogous to other significant
events such as Brisbane Expo 1988 where ‘13 of the 33 registered boarding
houses in South Brisbane, Highgate Hill and West End were demolished and a
further 22 rooming houses were converted to tourist uses, usually backpacker
hostels’.[6]
These predictions are now being realised through increases in existing and
proposed rents, and the conversion of many previously low cost boarding houses
into backpacker hostels, higher tariff rooms, or even serviced
apartments.
Most residents who are evicted from such premises are given little or no
notice of the eviction. This, coupled with their lack of income, inherent
vulnerability and a tight inner city rental market, makes it difficult for many
to avoid homelessness. Even though there may be breaches of the common law
associated with these evictions, services such as the community legal centres
and local tenancy advice services are finding it difficult to identify clients
and mount any sort of legal challenge to the evictions prior to the departure of
the residents.
A recent example of this trend was the closure of a boarding house in
Camperdown which housed men suffering from alcoholism and mental illness for
more than 20 years.[7] The owners told
the Sydney Morning Herald that they planned to upgrade the premises in
time for the Olympics, resulting in a weekly rent increase of about 176% for
each room. The existing residents were evicted.
This example is being repeated across the inner city, inner western and
lower north shore suburbs of Sydney. Added pressure is expected from a rising
rental market in anticipation of the Games. With diminishing sources of
alternative cheap accommodation, this increases the likelihood that these people
will be rendered homeless: a recent report found that the nature of such
residents made them more likely to be left homeless if evicted from boarding
house accommodation.[8]
It appears that the NSW State government has either failed to anticipate
the impact of the rental market on this sector, or does not consider these
developments to be inappropriate. Whatever the reason, the State government has
not adequately protected the rights of boarding house residents against the
market demands associated with the Olympic Games.
As late as last year the State government was denying that the Olympic
Games would have a significant impact on rental prices in Sydney. However the
Department of Urban Affairs and Planning has very recently acknowledged that
‘major events’ (such as the Olympic Games) will lead to increased
demand for tourist accommodation resulting in the further loss of affordable
housing stock such as boarding house accommodation, and that residents of such
accommodation are ‘amongst the most vulnerable groups in
society’.[9]
In mid-1999 the State government established a working party to review the
need for ‘boarders and lodgers’ legislation in New South Wales. An
Issues Paper was released by the working party last year and submissions were
due by the end of August 1999. The working party is expected to report to the
government by the end of February 2000.
It is hoped that the working party report will recommend the enactment of
legislation establishing statutory rights for boarding house residents similar
to those applying to other tenants. But even if legislation is recommended, it
is not likely to be enacted before the end of 2000. Attempts by tenancy groups
to hasten the enactment of legislation to provide protection for boarding house
residents prior to the Olympics appear to have failed.
Following recent pressure from groups such as Rentwatchers, the
Tenants’ Union, the NSW Council for Social Services and Shelter NSW, the
State government also announced minor amendments to its State Environmental
Planning Policy No 10 — Retention of Low Cost Rental Accommodation
(SEPP 10). The amendment requires relevant Local Councils to consider, before
approving an application for boarding house conversion:
SEPP 10 is only a policy document, and
does not establish legal enforceable rights for boarding house residents.
Nonetheless the timing of the amendment is significant, and it remains to be
seen what effect it will have on Local Council decision-making
processes.
In the meantime, boarding house residents’ individual rights to
accommodation remain unprotected. Unless urgent legislation is passed by the
State government to protect these rights, a significant number of these
residents are at risk of being left homeless due to Olympic ‘business
opportunities’ which result in massive rent increases and/or
evictions.
References
[1] Australian Housing and Urban
Research Institute, ‘Australia’s Private Rental Housing Market:
Processes and Policies’, Working Paper No 9, 1997,
p.75.
[2] ‘Report of the Task
Force on Private for Profit Hostels’, a report prepared for the Minister
for Community Services, December 1993,
p.91.
[3] ‘Report of the Task
Force on Private for Profit Hostels’, above,
p.32.
[4] Mowbray, R.C., Lost in
the Law: Tenancy Law Reform for Boarders and Lodgers, 1989,
p.18.
[5] Cox, G. and others,
‘The Olympics and Housing’, a report commissioned by Shelter NSW,
September 1994.
[6] Cox, G.,
‘Ready ... Set ... Go!’, Shelter NSW, 1999,
p.67.
[7] ‘Charity Can No
Longer Begin at Home’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 2000,
p.2.
[8] Australian Housing and
Urban Research Institute, above,
p.68.
[9] Guidelines for State
Environmental Planning Policy No 10 — Retention of Low Cost Rental
Accommodation, Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, January 2000,
pp.4-5.