Constituent housing issue adjournment speech

I have a constituent issue which remains unresolved over an extended period of time, and for which I have not been able to receive a satisfactory response from the Minister for Housing.

I have been in contact with the Minister’s office about this matter, most recently with a letter on 26 Sept, and have received no reply even though I have indicated the urgency.

I will not be mentioning anything that would identify my constituents, but I know that the Minister will be clear on the particular case that I am referring to.

These constituents are existing Housing Tasmania tenants.

Their disability needs have escalated to the extent that their current home, tenanted from Housing Tasmania, is no longer safe or appropriate for them to be living in.

It was determined that their existing home could not be modified to adequately meet their disability needs and a transfer to another property was identified as a way forward.

Housing Tasmania decided to modify another existing Housing Tasmania property to meet the disability needs of these tenants, that they could transfer into.

The tenants provided extensive information and expert medical and allied health professional reports on the specifics of their disability needs to inform the modification of the property.

In November, it will be one year since these constituents were told the property was ready to move into.

They packed up their current home, booked movers to assist, paid for cleaning at their current home and were very, very excited and highly relieved to be moving into a safe and appropriate home.

However, the property into which they were to move did not meet their specified, medically advised needs in an array of ways – including: a gate to the backyard that couldn’t be opened by a wheelchair user; a lip in the doorway of the rear door and uneven steps into the backyard entirely inaccessible in a wheelchair; white goods in the laundry that were not accessible in a wheelchair; considerable staining and sediment in the water that came through the taps throughout the property; no sinks in the property that were accessible in a wheelchair; unsuitable lighting for their disability needs; concreting and lawn work in the backyard that presented dangers to their mobility challenges.. and more.

I think it would be difficult for most of us to imagine exactly how devasting it was for these people to find that their move was totally impossible given the extremely inappropriate state of the property relative to their needs.

Since that time, one year ago next month, these people have lived out of boxes in their current, unsuitable and unsafe home.

They have spent their own money trying to make elements of the other property more suitable to their needs – so desperate are they to move in and find peace in a safe home.

They have been subjected to, what I would say are judgmental and stigmatising attitudes in their dealings with the department.

They have been left for months at a time with no formal communication from Housing Tasmania as to the status of or progress on their situation. Including, right now, having no correspondence from Housing Tasmania since July – 3 months ago!

Even though the property was patently unsuitable to their needs in the modifications that were originally made, at great effort on their part and in the face of entirely insufficient communication, they have had to request and further make the case for each of their basic needs to be met in the property through further modifications or adjustments.

This has included them personally financing specialist allied health reports with recommendations specifically on the aspects of the property that remained unsuitable.

And those aspects were many! There were aspects that have had to be undone, redone, fixed up, and cobbled together.

Even though the main tragedy here is the personal cost to these people, there has also been a substantial financial cost expended by Housing Tasmania that, I suspect, is vastly beyond what should have been reasonably required if the whole situation had been managed and
implemented appropriately.

Across the 12 months that have elapsed since the transfer to the modified property was supposed to occur, these people have had their physical and mental health devasted.

That devastation has occurred as a result of the stress, uncertainty, and damaging interactions, not to mention the fact that they have had to try and manage to live as safely as possible in an entirely inappropriate property.

Throughout this miserable odyssey, these people have remained polite and patient.

I first met these constituents in June and was shocked by the treatment and experiences they had endured.

Although we have been communicating regularly by electronic means, I had not visited them again in person until late September, at which time I was absolutely appalled to note the significant deterioration in their health on all levels.

I am not a medical specialist, but I would say that clearly this deterioration has been triggered by and exacerbated by the traumatic experiences they have been subjected to in managing their mess of a housing situation over the past year.

I am 100% certain that my view would be confirmed by medical specialists.

I was shocked to the point of tears to see the circumstances that these people have been reduced to. I have very real fears for their well-being. I fear that their health and well-being may not be recoverable from this experience.

Let’s remember, throughout this whole experience, these people have been in the powerless position in all their interactions with a government agency.

They are highly vulnerable.

They have been gutted by this experience.

I regard this as tantamount to institutional abuse and a clear failure of policy and/or process.

My questions are:

1. What duty of care does the Minister and/or the Director of Housing have for these Housing Tasmania tenants whose escalating disability needs render both their current home and their proposed transfer home unsuitable?

2. When will these tenants, who have experienced trauma and damage as a result of what appears to be significant Housing Tasmania mismanagement, have a home to move into that fully meets their disability needs?