See the link to the Tenants’ Union of Queensland’s fact sheet
http://tuq.org.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Info-for-tenants-affected-by-floods-updated-29-1-13.pdf
Assistance for flooded Gold Coast and Logan area residents
Today Minister announces more regions covered by assistance packages.
Residents affected by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald and associated rainfall and flooding in the Gold Coast City Council and Logan City Council areas can now access assistance from the Queensland Government to help their recovery.
Communities Minister Tracy Davis said disaster relief arrangements had now been activated in these affected areas.
“Personal Hardship Assistance Scheme (PHAS) grants are now available to support those families experiencing personal hardship, by covering the immediate, unexpected basic costs of essential items such as food, clothing and accommodation due to the extreme weather,” Ms Davis said.
“A grant of up to $180 per person, up to a maximum of $900 for a family of five or more, is available to eligible people experiencing genuine hardship.”
Essential Household Contents Grants, Structural Assistance Grants and Essential Services Safety Reconnection Scheme Grants would also be available for individuals and families affected by the flooding caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald. Continue reading
Residents of additional flooded areas now accessing assistance
A further press release from Tracy Davies, Minister for Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services issued yesterday afternoon.
Residents of additional local government areas affected by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald and associated rainfall and flooding can now access assistance from the Queensland Government to aid in their recovery.
Communities Minister Tracy Davis said disaster relief arrangements had now been activated for residents in the following local government areas:
· Brisbane City Council
· Ipswich City Council
· Lockyer Valley Regional Council
· Redland City Council
· Scenic Rim Regional Council
· Somerset Regional Council
· South Burnett Regional Council
· Southern Downs Regional Council
· Toowoomba Regional Council
· Western Downs Regional Council Continue reading
Assistance for flooded Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Fraser Coast and North Burnett area residents
This press release dated Monday January 28 was issued by the Minister for Communities,Child Safety and Disability Services, Tracy Davis.
Assistance for flooded Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Fraser Coast and North Burnett area residents
Residents affected by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald and associated rainfall and flooding in the Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Fraser Coast and North Burnett Regional Council areas can now access assistance from the Queensland Government to aid in their recovery.
Communities Minister Tracy Davis said disaster relief arrangements had now been activated in these affected areas.
“Personal Hardship Assistance Scheme (PHAS) grants are now available to support those families experiencing personal hardship, by covering the immediate, unexpected basic costs of essential items such as food, clothing and accommodation due to the extreme weather,” Ms Davis said.
“A grant of up to $180 per person, up to a maximum of $900 for a family of five or more, is available to eligible people experiencing genuine hardship.” Continue reading
I am a renter
Written by Janet Birmingham and reprinted from http://www.settlepetal.org.au/content/features/160_i_am_a_renter.html#.UQC_zIjjYUc.facebook
I am a renter. I have been a renter for all of my adult life, since I first moved out of home at 18. For the most part, this has suited me fine. I’m not in love with the idea of having such a huge amount of debt that it takes me thirty years to pay it off, nor am I in love with the idea of paying back over $890,000 for a loan of just $380,000. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what my preference would be, because my husband and I simply cannot afford to pay a mortgage on a house. Even if we bought the cheapest house currently available in our suburb, we literally could not afford the $2,400 in repayments each month – at least, not if we still wanted to eat. We also don’t have $40,000 in the bank for a deposit, another $15,000 for stamp duty, and another couple of thousand for bank and legal fees. In fact, most banks won’t even give us a home loan, because one of us stays at home to look after our two young children, and therefore we are a one income family. So, buying is out of the question, and that means that we may well be facing a lifetime of renting. Of itself that isn’t a huge problem, but it certainly does cause a few problems.
Several weeks ago, while I was accompanying my oldest daughter’s preschool class on an excursion, I received a phone call from the property manager of the house we currently rent. The owner of the house is moving back to Canberra, and in to this house, so we have eight weeks to move out. This is the third time in four years that we’ve had to move simply because the owner’s plans have changed. Continue reading
State owned Woombye and Lazy Acres Caravan Parks to be run by NFP sector – Minister
Residents of both Woombye and Lazy Acres Caravan Parks will be feeling relief today as the Minister for Housing, Tim Mander, announced neither caravan park will be sold.
On Tuesday Housing Minister Tim Mander announcement that the Monte Carlo Caravan Park will be run by a not for profit housing provider (but remain in state ownership) which, in return, will have to develop new social housing in targeted areas.
Today Minister Mander announced the same deal for the other two state owned parks that were to be sold. Woombye Caravan Park on the Sunshine Coast and Lazy Acres in Torquay on the Fraser Coast are to be run by a not for profit housing provider after a select tender process. This will bring some relief to residents of these parks who have been concerned what may happen to the parks if sold, as announced by the government last year.
Save Tenant Services congratulates the Minister on the decision not to sell these parks.
Lazy Acres Caravan Park residents contemplate their future
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.
More coverage of Monte Carlo decision
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.
Some relief for Monte Carlo Caravan Park residents
Picture source: The Courier Mail
Save Tenant Services congratulates the Minister for Housing, Minister Mander, on a promising outcome for residents of Monte Carlo Caravan Park. These residents have been living in fear of the park being sold off since the middle of last year when the government announced it would sell the park. Minister Mander now says the park will be run by a not for profit housing provider. See below the Minister’s press release of January 22.Let’s hope there is similar news for the other two parks (Woombye Caravan Park and Lazy Acres in Torquay) which are also subject to the decision to sell made last year by the Newman government.
Win-Win for Monte Carlo Caravan Park
(Minister for Housing & Public Works, Honorable Tim Mander 22-1-13)
The Monte Carlo Caravan Park on Brisbane’s Southside is set to remain in place following a State Government announcement which will give a not-for-profit housing provider the opportunity to run the facility.
The Newman Government will invite a select group of not-for-profit housing providers to submit expressions of interest in the Cannon Hill site on the condition that it continues to operate as a caravan park.
Under the plan, the successful proponent will take possession of the site in exchange for an agreement to build new social housing in key target areas.
Minister for Housing and Public Works Tim Mander said the EOI would include respected providers Horizon, Four Walls, Churches of Christ Care, Brisbane Housing Company and Bric. Continue reading
Thank goodness for tenant advocates
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.
“I come home, I go to bed,” he told French website and radio station RTL.
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.
Ex-Housing Minister back in the news
Reprinted from the Courier Mail 17-1-13. Read the article directly from their website here.
Bruce Flegg and his son exchanged a series of emails about Government staff. Source: The Courier-Mail
STARTLING new documents reveal the extent of the professional relationship between former Newman Government minister Bruce Flegg and his lobbyist son. The documents filed in the Supreme Court show a trail of emails between Dr Flegg and his son Jonathon, who was working for lobbying firm Rowland.
They include a clear directive from Mr Flegg to keep the correspondence off government computers – a move that would mean the emails would be exempt from Right to Information laws.
The emails include a critique of 16 of the Newman Government’s ministerial chiefs-of-staff, sent by Jonathon’s Gmail account to his father’s BigPond email address just three weeks after last year’s state election.
It is not clear who wrote the critique, but Dr Flegg forwarded it to the personal accounts of his own chief-of-staff and media adviser, with the warning: “Very confidential. For your info. Useful. Don’t send to any govt computors (sic).”
The dossier of emails is part of former media adviser Graeme Hallett’s defence to an $800,000 defamation damages claim brought by Dr Flegg.
Included is a directive from the minister to his chief-of-staff to have a policy officer look at information that “Jonathon will forward”. Continue reading
No specialist tenant representation funded for tenancy law review
The TUQ report that a door has been left open by the government for future negotiations, one which they say they will eagerly pursue. However, the decision by the State, means there is no longer any of the millions of dollars worth of interest generated on tenants’ bonds provided for specialist tenant services in Queensland. Read the TUQ press release here.
May 2013 be challenging and fulfilling for all
Happy New Year from Save Tenant Services. If 2013 was a meal, we hope your plate’s full of challenge and fulfilment, there’s a side of happiness and a bit of fun peppered on top.
Tenant bond interest lost to tenant advice services after today!
Without any response from the state government to the TUQ’s request for specific, time-limited funding to represent tenants’ interests in the current tenancy law review, today marks the last day there is funding for any independent tenant advocate in the state. That means, after today, not one cent of the $34M of the interest generated on tenants’ bonds last year will be applied to any independent tenant advice service or for any tenant advocate to raise tenants’ interests in the current legislative review, which will continue next year.
This is not a sustainable outcome and will only serve to undermine people’s confident in the outcomes of the legislative review and impartiality of the Residential Tenancies Authority.
Tenant advocates have lobbied for tenant/landlord regualtory systems since the mid 1980s when there was no accessible process for a tenant to seek the return of a bond regardless of how the property was left. Getting a bond back was often difficult, sometimes impossible until the introduction of the then Rental Bond Act 1989 regulating the process and limited access to independent tenant advice. Continue reading
Anxious Monte Carlo residents face unclear future
Earlier this year the state government announced it would sell the Monte Carlo caravan park in Brisbane. This park was purchased in the early 1990s by the then Labor government to protect it from private sector redevelopment.
Given the recent announcement, anxious residents have been attempting to purchase the park themselves but have so far received a limited response.
4ZZZ’s Steve Riggall caught up with the residents about the situation. Listen to the interview here.