By Annette Wade
MELBOURNE — Since the federal election, the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Regional Development has been totally abolished. Public housing and the Crisis Accommodation Program (CAP) have been moved to the Department of Social Security as "welfare programs". The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) — a welfare program established on the premise that the cause of homelessness is a lack of individual skills — has been moved to the new Department of Health and Family Services.
The elevation of SAAP is a clear statement about the Howard government's partition of Australians into haves and have-nots. While some people do need some support to maintain their housing, at an ideological level SAAP is aimed at blaming individuals for their inability to find secure housing, rather than laying the blame on Australia's dysfunctional housing system.
Public housing will be viewed more and more as the "residual safety net" for people who are seen as too incompetent to access other (better) forms of housing.
In its election platform, the Victorian government proposed introducing 12-month leases in public housing as a stepping stone from SAAP to other housing tenures. After this, the tenant no doubt will be expected either to rent privately (if they're lucky) or to move on to community housing or home purchase — both of these options being supported by dubious government schemes.
The Kennett government is planning to rapidly build up the Community Housing Program by allocating more funds to CHP acquisition than to public housing during this term. The CHP is a thinly veiled privatisation scheme, whereby the community is handed funds to purchase, own and take future responsibility for housing.
CHP exists within a policy void, and still without operating subsidies or security of tenure for tenants. The community will be left holding the baby and forced to become entrepreneurial to survive, while the government will have no responsibility to its citizens beyond providing the limited "safety net" for the "incompetent".
Further consequences will be that only the safest tenants will be selected for CHP properties, rents will be higher, and the public housing system will be irreparably damaged.
Existing public tenants fare little better, with the Victorian government continuing to flog off our assets to private sector developers for so-called "affordable housing" programs. At least one high rise tower will be pulled down during the Kennett government's current term. There has been no mention of redeveloping the housing for tenants to return to.
All of the high rise towers are on prime inner city real estate, and there is excitement in the private sector about getting their hands on this. The estates most ripe for sale would have to be Nelson Heights in Williamstown, or Park Towers in South Melbourne, because they are single towers with wonderful bay views, and would be a more attractive prospect to industry.
This will be the first step in a program that aims to demolish eventually all inner city high rises in Melbourne.
Perhaps the Kennett government's true motive is to marginalise strong inner city left electorates by displacing huge numbers of low income people and replacing them with the more affluent in new private sector developments. In departmental policy documents this is called "improving the social mix".
The amalgamation of housing and DSS is a major issue for public tenants. One can easily envisage the direct debit from source (DSS pensions) rental payment scheme becoming less voluntary, and the development of a welfare housing benefit to replace rental rebates.
The all-powerful role of DSS in providing both income and housing also needs to be questioned, particularly in relation to the amount of information that will be known about the tenant.
We are already seeing the Howard government's witch-hunt in DSS, to convince the electorate of the need for massive welfare cuts. What next — dob in a public tenant line? Will tenants become even more fearful of having someone stay over or kids returning home for a period?