Reprinted from the Fraser Coast Chronicle; Mitch Crawley 1st Apr 2013 5:00 AM
Read directly from the website here

Pressure for LNP backflip as tenant service moves to close

THE Queensland Opposition is applying renewed pressure on the LNP government to reverse its decision to axe Tenant Advice and Advocacy Services on the Fraser Coast.

Former Housing Minister Bruce Flegg announced the service – which provides free information, advice and advocacy to tenants and residents in Queensland – would have its funding removed and be wound up in October last year. That decision was followed by a Federal Government announcement that it would step in with emergency funding to ensure TAAS could at least continue to operate until June this year, saving up to five jobs in the region.

Now, with that deadline approaching, Shadow Housing Minister Jo-Ann Miller has renewed the Opposition’s push for the government to reverse its decision.

“TAAS services including the Fraser Coast service at Pialba have proved their worth as a source of information and advice for tenants who might otherwise be ripped-off by unscrupulous landlords,” Mrs Miller said.

“I am calling on the new Housing Minister Tim Mander to reverse the previous minister’s decision last year to axe these services.”

She said the LNP must provide funds to ensure TAAS continued beyond the financial year’s end

http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/pressure-for-lnp-backflip/1811979/

Read the article printed in the Brisbane Times of March 3, 3012.

(From the Whitsunday Times 14-2-13)     WHITSUNDAY workers from the Social and Community Services Sector (SACS) will be hitting the streets on Saturday morning to alert the community to the impacts of State Government funding cuts.  

A community awareness event titled ‘Save our SACS’ has been planned for this Saturday at the Airlie Beach foreshore from 10.30am.

Service organisations represented at Saturday’s event will include the Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre, Whitsunday Crisis and Counselling Service, Tenancy and Housing Information Service (TAAS), Whitsunday Housing Company, Ideal Placements, Proserpine Youth Space and the Whitsunday PCYC.  (Read the full article here).

As tenant advice services ramp up their campaign for re funding after June, the Whitsunday services is making news.  Check out the article below from the Whitsunday Coast Guardian 13-2-13.  State Housing Minister Mander comments about looking at future options for a tenant advice program. Continue reading →

Reprinted from The West Australian.

Minister pans Labor’s vow on rent fee

The Government accused Labor yesterday of failing to do its homework after promising to abolish a real estate fee that is set to drop dramatically from April 1.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan pledged, if elected, to get rid of the rental option fee to make house-hunting more affordable for lower and middle-income families.

The rental option fee – usually equivalent to a week’s rent – is collected by landlords and real estate agents and credited as rent if the applicant wins the tenancy but refunded in full if it is not awarded.

Landlords keep the fee to cover the cost of checking references if an applicant is awarded the tenancy but rejects it to rent elsewhere. Continue reading →

Victorian tenant advocates seek changes to the law following the sad death of three International students.  Reprinted from the Age, January 24.  Read it from the website here.

Packed share houses pose risk for international students

International students are at grave risk of house fires with overcrowding and  a lack of understanding about smoke alarms among major problems, housing groups  say.

The Tenants’ Union of Victoria and Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic raised  their concerns in a recent submission to Coroner Peter White over the deaths of  three Indian students in a house fire in Footscray.

Sunil Patel, Jignesh Sadhu and Deepak Prajapati died after a computer monitor  short circuited in their room. Another Indian student also often slept in the  room but was not home when the house caught fire in January 2008. Continue reading →

Yesterday the Housing Minister, Tim Mander, announced the government has changed its mind and will no longer sell the Monte Carlo caravan park in Brisbane as announced last year.  However, the future for the other two state owned caravan parks – Lazy Acres, Fraser Coast and Woombye, Sunshine Coast – is still unclear.  In this Fraser Coast Chronicle report, residents of the other parks are urged to keep pressure on the state government to deliver a similar announcement and keep the parks in state ownership. Read the article here.

The Brisbane Central Quest newspaper covered yesterday’s announcement by Housing Minister Tim Mander not to sell the Monte Carlo caravan park as announced in the middle of last year.  Read their coverage here.

Reprinted from the Courier Mail  21-1-13 (read it from their website here).
Let’s hope the Queensland state government re-establishes their commitment to tenant advocacy after the Commonwealth’s emergency funding runs out at the end of June.

Tiny French apartment houses man for 15 years, for $418 a week

A MAN who lives an apartment too small to even stand up straight in has been paying more than $400 a week for the tiny abode.

The apartment in Paris measures just 1.56 square metres, and has been home to the 50-year-old man, known only as Dominique, for the past 15 years.
His plight came to light after the man asked housing advocacy group Fondation Abbe Pierre for help dealing with his landlord, according to French news site NPR.
The advocacy group has published a photo of the tiny home, which has a skylight and a slanted roof, and said on its Twitter feed that “a person doesn’t stand correctly” in the space.
Dominique had reportedly been paying €330 a week to rent the cramped space.

The legal minimum size of an apartment in Paris is 9 square metres and an apartment must include a shower, according to Le Monde.

The owner of the apartment faces a court later this month and the door of the tiny apartment has been permanently shut, RTL reports.

The high rent demanded for the apartment, which has reportedly been managed by three different real estate agencies, is being touted as evidence of the excessive cost of renting in Paris.