Everybody should have access to adequate, appropriate and affordable housing. Government housing policies and programs should be based on the principle that housing assistance must be provided equitably to people in different forms of housing (home owners, private renters, public renters).
THERE is no longer a NSW Minister for Housing. Responsibility for housing is now split between the Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce and Minister for Families and Community Services Pru Goward.
Read more: Minister Goward went in to bat for pensioners. Now it’s time to deliver
by Virginia Pidcock, Older Persons Tenants' Service
CPSA’s Older Persons Tenants’ Service (OPTS) provides advice and advocacy to NSW public and private tenants aged 55 years and older, and all NSW protected tenants regardless of age.
LATE last year, CPSA attended a ‘Ministerial forum’ on the deferral of the single pension rent increase for public and community housing.
FEW doubt that people affected by the recent floods need as much help as they can get to rebuild.
But some of the funding cuts planned by the Australian Government to partly fund the flood assistance package are questionable, particularly the cut to the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).
NEW research into housing policy is questioning the traditionally held view that home ownership helps prevent housing-related poverty in older age.