The ACT Government needs to start to get serious about the enforcement of acceptable behaviour for disruptive tenants within Housing ACT, said Alistair Coe, Shadow Minister for Housing.
The ACT Government revealed today that the Department of Housing and Community Services spends $700,000 per year on private security to patrol multi-unit complexes and stand-alone public housing properties.
“The fact that the Government needs to spend so much money on security suggests their anti-social behaviour strategies are not working,” said Mr Coe.
“Whilst the vast majority of public housing tenants do the right thing, a number blatantly disregard their tenancy agreements and make life miserable and sometimes dangerous for neighbours.
“Regularly, I hear from concerned people about how unresponsive the Housing ACT complaint mechanisms are for people reporting anti-social behaviour.
“The Government needs to properly enforce their tenancy agreements to ensure that both the Government and the tenants are meeting their obligations.
“Tenants in public housing that are disrespectful towards their taxpayer provided property and for their neighbours are tarnishing the reputation of the thousands of tenants who do the right thing.
“The Government must clamp down on anti-social behaviour at the earliest opportunity to avoid a culture of disrespect being entrenched amongst some tenants.
“Ms Burch needs to get serious about this issue to prevent more problems from occurring in the future,” said Mr Coe.
