HOLISTIC HOUSING PROBLEMS FOR ROOMING HOUSE OPERATORS & VIET VETERAN PROBLEMS

Ex-Army SAS. Started 2009 with us after sleeping in tent in retarding basin for some weeks. Worked for Cabinet Makers originally without previous obvious issues with women, but now on pension due to various work accidents and health issues, has memory lapses forgets his [alleged] behaviour towards women. He refuses to acknowledge or remember he does anything wrong. I had asked him to leave due to alleged incidents towards women, but he did not have anywhere to go apart from vagrancy, so i agreed to my managers request to house him a little longer but needed to be away from women so country location only option as only two men in residence, till he goes to Drs appointment later in month then hopefully moving interstate to his family. I dont expect any problems with him while a in country location. My house manager is trying to help him get a pyschiatric assessment and case worker.Veterans Affairs have advised me they will help him if he asks, but he too proud to ask. He is likely to faint due to stress and high blood pressure and needs to lie down. He needs a pacemaker. Current location not the best medical location for him, but no other option at this stage apart from streets. Can anyone help with near metrolpolitan location without women in residence.

AMERICAN TAXATION SYSTEM NEEDS OVERHALL TOO

This was my contribution to the American Personal Liberty Digest blog today amoungst my many other comments I love making on that blog. I find it a great forum for debating the the political problems in the USA.

 

Gilly says:

October 28, 2011 at 8:22 pm

Why not look at the Australian Taxation system as a guide which whilst not perfect could be looked at to improve your system. I suggest that all state taxes be rolled over to the Federal Government, except for fines and Judicial matters. Our counterfeit proof currency is also a world leader in technology which your money printing department should look at seriously by talking to our Reserve Bank of Australia..I don’t believe in conspiracy banker theories however my suspicion is that your money printers do not wish to make it harder to print counterfeit money as perhaps some State government departments may already be printing unauthorised real dollars,but even if my theory is totally wrong one could very easily jump to such conclusions when it appears your Federal Reserve money printers have not taken up any new anti counterfeit technology to date.

The federal System should tax everybody and corporations in a similar manner and at the same rate so nobody gets a special privilege over others in your various states. There should be EQUALITY in income taxation rates. There should not be any capital gains taxes as this tax alone is debasing the value of bank held securities for every year that a tax liability increases every bank has a lesser mortgage security. My suggestions would help in the management of the economy better than appears to be the case now.

Those of you who consider like I do that taxation is theft, should also consider that Democracy and the freedom and enjoyment of Free Enterprise your government system offers is not available for free without payment or cost. It is up to the voters to decide which candidates or groups of candidates are elected to pursue their favoured policies whether higher or lower taxes to equally apply to everybody whether corporate or individual. My free point of view from Gillysrooms from St Arnaud Vic 3478 Australia. One of Victoria’s oldest Gold Mining towns since 1850′s.

AMERICA IS AT THE CROSSROADS

TAXATION IS THEFT there is no doubt,  however.

There are two ways the USA government can get out of the world’s current economic woes and the first is through Higher taxation to implement the Obama Jobs program which in turn will save the jobs and incomes of many people and the rich the value of their assets they wish to preserve” …this statement I can explain better at another time or post. If the USA Congress does not permit higher taxes then the only other way is to print more money thereby causing inflation of your financial assets. I recall Milton Friedman saying that Inflation is also taxation without legislation. These are all true and i still accept them to be true today.

There are only three basic options, 1. Increase taxation so a not to increase too much credit, 2 Print more money and create inflation OR 3 GO BROKE, TOTAL FINANCIAL RUIN and cause EVERYONE except landowners without loans to lose everything. The wealthy shareholders and financial instrument owners will mostly lose everything, most insurance companies and savings and loans will fail, and so will many big and small businesses. At this stage ONLY CONGRESS can decide which way it wants to go to keep Americans as they are now or create total civil unrest. No matter how dishonest former governments have been…is now irrelevant…and not worth arguing about how we got into this great pickle…In my opinion …the biggest question is how does the western world ride out of it in the smoothest possible way.

There is little purpose in blaming the past generations and politicians or even current politicians about how we got into this GIANT MESS..we have to think of the greater good and tell your leaders to CO-OPERATE & NOT ARGUE during these delicate very difficult times. In America you seem to have too many hot-headed egotistical leaders selfishly thinking and worrying about their next election results and not putting their heads TOGETHER in a true spirit of co-operation for the greater good of not only your own nation but also Australia and Europe. The Asian countries can look after themselves and are also helping us believe it or not indirectly. From Gillysrooms in Australia

Reply

FREE GIFTS FOR BACKYARDS

Gillysrooms.blogspot.com In an effort to reduce the Homeless situation in Victoria a well known rooming house operator is promoting a new idea to get homeowners to rent out their backyards to the homeless and seasonal fruitpicking tent dwellers during the summer months. The aim of this new venture is to get the homeless out of sleeping in cars and public parks or dangerous wildfire forest crown land areas and to encourage and lobby the State Government to change PLANNING SCHEME LAWS to extend the 28 day max allowable tent and caravan times in backyards.   
 
We are offering a range of free gifts instead of rent, to property owners if they can provide/host their backyard and toilet, shower and BBQ facilities for 28 days during the summer months. We will manage all aspects in the setting up of the venture including...tenant selection, bonds and have police monitoring the tenants location 
  FREE GIFTS RANGE

NEW WASHING MACHINE,

FREE CANVAS TENT,

NEW TV,

NEW COMPUTER,

FREE HOLIDAYS

Other ideas for free gifts would be greatly appreciated.

We are also looking for businesses and retail/wholesale traders who might like to donate some other goodies to entice homeowners to take a chance in helping some of our  Homeless in Victoria.

With many current affairs programs constantly showing how tenants can trash houses or not pay rent ...many more houses are being withdrawn for rental by horrified owners who prefer to keep houses vacant than risk problems. 

This state of affairs is causing an already tight rental market to become even more acute so that many singles cannot find accommodation and are sleeping in cars and in public and crown land. 

This is a genuine attempt to help all those homeless people who due to circumstances are less fortunate than most of us.

 Anyone interested should contact our Manager John on 0447 237 125 or Gilbert on 0407 855 224 or gillysrooms@hotmail.com
We may be also interested to hear from charitably minded people who may be prepared to invest from $10,000 to help with findind and developing suitable land for caravan parks around Melbourne to house the current homeless.

SCARY CARBON TAXED ON ELECTRICITY ACCOUNTS

Some people claim that landlords and rooming houses are charging too much rent, but lets look at a bill i got yesterday for a house with 4 single men living in it. AGL bill was $1915 for 89 days . that works out at $21.51 per day, or $150.63 pw. or $37.65 each per week. The bill also states that carbon emissions are 13.62 tonnes which i might assume will be charged at $23 per tonne = $313.26 when the carbon tax comes in plus gst of 10% = $344.59 extra to pay when CARBON TAX comes in. The bill is obviously too high and these guys will either have to cop and hugh rent increase or go sleep in a tent during summer. Some guys are already doing just that as i explained in the tenant scams article.

But where is the benefit for the country? Who are the THE GREENS PARTY trying to impress.

Will these 4 men need to sleep in tents to save on carbon emissions? I certainly wont be able to subsidise them at all...

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

I am sure there are many capable people who are offering themselves as candidates for the front man President of the nation, but whoever wins will lose in the popularity stakes as the world deepens into recession over the next 5 years. Presidential candidate Obama was full of enthusiasm and positive policies when he won office, but now he seems to have lost the enthusiasm he once had, probably knocked out of him by your crazy system. I believe he deserves a second term because if his words are true, then he is the only current person [president] who can help the poor in his nation to struggle through the difficult times ahead. America does not need a tough basher of the poor to keep the peace. Obama is the best person to help maintain peace during difficult financial times. We are already seeing demonstrations against the Wall Street excesses, but you dont need civil unrest to escallate like in Britain recently. AM I WRONG?

CARBON TAX PONZIE SCHEMES START WITH AUSTRALIAN SENATE TODAY

In my view our Australian elected dictators have made a serious policy error by introducing the carbon tax. Their new policy will have many negative effects which will help increase unemployment in the Australian manufacturing sector which will be bad for those losing their jobs but good for borrowers with jobs if the RBA decreases official interest rates. Australian Manufacturers will find life harder with Asian countries getting an extra pricing advantage and probably tip more firms to close down,  others gradually as they realise that anything they make in Australia can also be made in China or India at much lower costs as those foreign firms do not have Super levy of 9-12% , carbon tax issues and other relatively higher imposts. Other firms will close abruptly with workers entitlement lost in bankruptcies.
Manufacturing businesses will find it harder to sell their businesses or get bank funding as banks by now have worked out that unless the manufacturers are producing something which cannot be made cheaper overseas, then those businesses will close down sooner or later and have no value to lend against, unless those businesses start replacing more stocks from overseas and reduce employment liabilities in Australia.

One might ask, why don't all the manufacturer's I refer to just close down now? Well, those who own the companies are locked in and just cant sell out as no one will want to buy them out and banks won't lend to any potential buyers. They are stuck and their assets may be encumbered by the business which has no value. If the businesses employ members of their own families or friends, they may feel obliged to continue providing them with the employment and hope that they can take over a viable business when the original owners retire or die. If they have obsolete but still working equipment...they can continue till they break down or can be replaced by cheaper alternative equipment from overseas or from liquidation sales.

Some businesses which deal in manufacturing one offs or special non mass production components are likely to be able to continue to survive, but others will just slowly close down voluntarily or forced to close unless they start importing replacement products by mainly becoming importers. This is a general statement as there are many businesses where my views are not applicable. Mind you, anyone trying to sell their business wont agree me as they try convince a new unsuspecting investors to buy them out. Some companies may be able to diversify or merge with other businesses to get economies of scale.  and this is seen happening. Many businesses just cant wind down and close, the only way to close down is to go broke. Maybe you can prove me wrong.


Those of you who have followed the Carbon Tax debate would have noticed a Merchant banker supporting the tax in silence. Why?  In my view this is because there is money in trading these non tangible carbon credits and there is BIG MONEY to be made by the traders and politicians who have a say on how they will be traded and bought and sold. Many retiring politicians will end up on Boards of Directors to advise on the schemes and trading elements. It is going to be big business for ex-politicians and the solar industries who will be attempting all manner of scams and projects to profits from destroying other businesses. Luckily, it wont be too obviously a disaster and many employers will adjust their prices if required and try to tough it out with few noticeable retrenchments. But the inevitable cannot be avoided in the musical chair business. Such is our political system in our country... everyone of our politicians wanting to live in an ideal world which does not exist, but making their supporters think they doing it for their benefit. EVERYONE LIVING IN A FANTASY DREAM WORLD

HOMESLESS SCAMS

I had a guy ring me up in June with the help of a welfare organisation claiming to be homeless and desparately needing crisis accommodation for him and his dog he said, as no one else would take him in with his pet and he was sleeping in a very cold car. One can never know the truth in these situations as too many are streetwise and not very truthful.  It was winter and getting cold, so i did a deal with him of lower rent if he did some specific work around the bungalow to make it liveable before he moved in. He agreed but moved in without doing the work he had agreed to do as I found out later from my caretaker, and that someone else had done the work instead. He did not have any money when he moved in but he applied for and did obtain a two weeks rental grant from a local welfare group which took several weeks to be paid to us and by moving into rental he also became entitled to rent assistance offered by the federal government of $117 pf.
My electricity bill excallated sunstantially during his stay as we found several unauthorised heaters in the bungalow when he left recently to live in his car as the weather is nicer now and not bitterly cold and he intended to move to Byron Bay for the summer.  Other questions arose as to why he was needing so many heaters and weed growing comes to mind and might explain the part of the higher electricity bill during his stay. He left and we did not refund him the discount offered for the work he had agreed to do originally. He was ok with that for a couple weeks and then he suddenly needed money and started to threaten various action to recover what he felt should be returned to him. As often happens people move out without advising Centrelink that they are not entitled to get the rental assistance and mail continues to arrive at our address and I'm starting to think that i should continue to charge a rent for mail services until they officially leave. We do advise Centrelink on a periodical basis of who lives at our premises but despite me returning letters to centrelink they rarely act on the returned mail with mail arriving for several months after the original RTS mail, and I'm sure that many streetwise tenants get away with plenty of rent assistance money they not entitled to.
In one case in Dandenong there where 18 people registered to receive both rent and rent assistance when only 3 people officially lived there in a two bedroom unit. It took Centrelink quite awhile before they rang us so we could confirm who was really living there. We now are more regularly in contact with Centrelink Fraud department to reconcile residents.
Its also not unusual these days to have people claiming to be 'homeless' going to the local welfare agencies for a free two weeks stay rather than going to a motel for two weeks and paying motel rates. After two weeks they just leave without telling anyone that they moving on and so other genuine homeless requiring crisis accomodation miss out on an empty room while we to try work out whether the scammer has gone missing or really left.  It disgusting that these streetwise people are abusing the system meant for the genuine people, so recently we have had to change our no bond policy to require a bond which if genuine they can get from various sources and the money goes to the appropriate body under the regulations. This new policy has been met well by the welfare agencies and we have also been able to offer a lower no frills room rental for compliant and genuine people.Some of the drug affected applicants in previous years would also think they could organise accomodation paid for by the welfare agencies and then leave within days and then demand a refund to them which we could not comply with and this would cause all manner of threats of going to the media, ACA, and bad press and spreading malicious rumours if they did not get their 'refund', Luckily in many cases we had not yet received the cheques for several weeks anyway .....and we would just cancel the unused portion of the rent.  This is just one scheme which even Social Workers become unknowingly invloved in by calling the rooming house operator to be a rogue for not helping to launder welfare funds for some of druggie clients. It just not on and we will never be a party to it.

EVICTING PETS FROM ROOMING HOUSES

PETS are not permitted to live in Rooming Houses and as a consequence their owners have to be evicted under the current Health regulations if 1 or 4 unrelated people have pets despite the need for some people having their only friend in a dog or cat, yet if a family of 4 or more have any number of dogs and cats they can continue to reside on the property as long as the pets are registered, NOT the premises or the owner in which they reside. This is an anomaly which needs addressing in favour of the Rooming House operator by giving them the option to have no more than one house pet.

Medical evidence has already proven that pets as conpanion animals can have a calming effect on some otherwise stressed residents. In other cases it may not be appropriate if at least one resident is allergic to cats as an example.

As I have stated before, the practice of offering accommodation to the homeless is not a fashionable respectable business occupation and unless you are a “Not for
profit organisation” whose costs of operating such facilities are usually substantially
much higher albeit funded by donations.  The waiting lists for cheap government owned or tax-payer funded accommodation are huge and I suggest will never be able to be funded by State or Federal governments alone in our life time. 

I suggest governments  need to be kinder to operators whether you like their personalities or not. They are still housing a few more homeless and usually the difficult ones no one else wants.

HOUSING HEALTH RISKS

Change Welfare agencies procedures or protocols to disallow the referral of dangerously mentally ill people to Rooming Houses. I.e. that social workers NOT be permitted to refer serious cases to rooming houses and that they be held liable personally if clients cause damage or death in rooming houses. Tenants with Hepatitis C or infectious diseases should not be referred to group accommodation. As we regard these as an additional health and safety risk to other residents.

There are other homeless which CANNOT/SHOULD NOT be accepted into private
Rooming Houses should be housed in government funded and supervised
by ex-jail staff or a house “momma” with experience in dealing with people with
difficult and non conforming personalities.  These are typically non
reformable ex-crims, drug dealers and users who are ending up running riot in
many other poorly supervised rooming houses causing death and destruction
where ever they go.  This class cannot be responsibly placed in mainstream
rooming houses due to public liability insurance conditions as well as other
safety regulations  which would be invalidated should dangerous people be permitted to move in. Only the State can afford such a high liability regime.

SOLUTIONS FOR HOMELESS

SOLUTIONS

If on the other hand the State wishes to foster and encourage operators to continue or create more rooms, then I suggest removing the following obstacles:        

      Change your attitude towards operators in both media releases and action and actively encourage them.

2.     Increase the number of people defined as a Rooming House from 4 people to 9 people i.e. 4 couples plus 1 in the average 4 bedroom standard house on ground level properties. I.e.  9 people before the Rooming House rule should cut in. The better move would be to exclude all ground level properties, but that might be too much to ask. 

Al   Allow no more than one pet on the premises of a rooming house under Council Health Regulations, similar to Kingston Hospital who permit several cats in bedrooms of patients without issue and encouraged by doctors.

LEFT WING SOCIALIST LAWYERS CAUSE MORE HOMELESSNESS

I also raise this matter here because too many Local Government local By-laws Officers are using the State Coroners Findings in the case of Brunswick Backpacker fire as a
valid reason to shut down and/or issue penalty notices against as many operators
as possible because the Officers are so seriously concerned and led to believe that
they personally will be held legally responsible for the obligations which has been foisted onto Councils by the previous State Government.

In my opinion  Ground level accommodation with easy window escape should not be treated in the same manner as double storey buildings, however if fire safety on ground level is not safe then the only other fire safe accommodation would be fireproof canvas tents without lockable doors. Whilst you may conclude that I am being sarcastic, some welfare agencies have been actually resorting to offering tents to difficult tenants who turn up time and time again for assistance as they cannot get on with anyone in any of the placements.

I do not go out of my way visiting other rooming houses to get ideas of how others choose to operate, and thus I am not familiar with the standards offered by other
rooming houses. For this reason I cannot denigrate the decisions made by the
By-Laws Officers to close the houses down, however some of the reasons for the
poor state of cleanliness are caused by the occupants themselves some of which
are keen to benefit from tactical media hype which delivers them faster
assistance into public housing. However, usually it’s just really a case of
selection the wrong combination of people and not enforcing strict HOUSE RULES
in relation to house, room and personal hygiene.

The business of providing accommodation to numbers of single homeless people in one multi room property should not be regarded or treated as a terrible criminal offence which is the message DHS are already sending out from their Departmental Media Releases which state the intention to increase fines for non-compliance? For god’s sake ...are you real? There are enough examples of where operators are automatically vilified by some of the Left wing extremist political groups using the tabloid media as their voice and who consider the only good accommodation is that which is provided by the State or a charity.  

I will not name these other groups in this statement; however these political or hardline ideological statements are not helpful if the end result is to encourage more investors to provide new accommodation stock for homeless singles. If the State Government wishes to scare potential investors and operators, I can help very quickly and easily do the work for you in my blog and shut down the industry in no time at all.
Maybe it is the result of a State hell bent on taking advice from consultants who only listen to the tenants who want everything for nothing, [Free Government Pensions & benefits, Free Rent and free food from Charities] and consultants who have never lived in any Rooming House.

WELAFRE ORGANISATIONS SAVE HOMELESS WHEN CENTRELINK CUT OFF BENE3FITS

Most tenants in rooming houses no longer work for a living for a multitude of reasons and get their income free of needing to work, save for a couple of visits to Centrelink offices and filling out the various forms ...pretty easy work for tax free dollars you would think eh? But so many just can’t even bother to do that on time, consequently Centrelink will breach them and the income stops and so does the rental income for the landlord/operator. Should I pass on this information to other potential private operators or investors to scare them further?
WELFARE ORGANISATIONS
Thankfully the welfare agencies will come to the rescue on most occasions and offer to make up the lost income to pay out the rental arrears if the tenant gets off their butt and makes an application and are still eligible and fulfil the guidelines and have not already used up his/her lifelines for that year. We do give the well behaved tenants another chance, [the devil you know is always better than the next one we don’t know anything about] but that chance comes at a cost of lost revenue for the several weeks it takes to get that cheque from the kind welfare organisations.
We do expect that welfare recipients do the very least and comply with Centrelink guidelines by attending interviews and filling out the appropriate forms even when the weather may be inclement.

CENTRELINK STAFF

On the other hand Centrelink Officers should be aware that their clients do not always have wet weather attire or umbrellas to be able to get to their offices on time and
without running the risk of getting pneumonia. Centrelink Officers are on
$50,000  pa plus  and can afford an air conditioned motor vehicle to get to and from their air-conditioned offices on time each day, but many of their clients cannot always move around efficiently and on time, without making allowances for their various other sufferings of depression, forgetfulness  or lack of public transport fares etc.

GOVERNMENT POLICY REDUCING OPTIONS FOR HOMELESS

LANDLORDS POINT OF VIEW

Being a rooming house operator is a tough business because everyone views the operator as greedy, unprofessional or often viewed on TV tabloid news and current
affairs as offering unhealthy accommodation with tenants constantly complaining
about the mess or mould.

Most operators are vilified without any real reason except it makes good tabloid
media. How would you like to be named as greedy, unscrupulous, rogue landlord
taking advantage of the desperate, disadvantaged, vulnerable and
disenfranchised poor homeless? All words devised to belittle the endeavour of those
who for whatever reason are in the commercial business of managing accommodation for customers who most have many choices where they choose to reside, if only they could learn to live with others harmoniously with their family and friends  or pay their rent elsewhere.

Now put yourself in the shoes of an operator...well most of you would not bother ...and If you would not...who would bother to house the homeless when everyone in the media, the charities complain about record numbers of people sleeping in the streets, on park benches, in cardboard boxes, under trees etc.

Will you consider making your spare room available for other families rejects? What are the real risks of renting out a room to a stranger? [Remember recent case of a
serious assault of a female Good Samaritan who provided a bungalow free of
charge to a homeless guy]  Is it a good financial decision to rent out a spare room or bungalow? What are some of the solutions and options avail now to increase the number of rooms for the homeless fast? These and many more questions will be attempted to be answered in my blog. I won’t be pulling any punches, I might protect the not so innocent by not using their real names, but my blog will tell it as it is in my
several years experience. But most of the diplomatic comments will be reserved
for this submission.

NEW GOD COMING TO ST ARNAUD

I have had the pleasure of meeting some interesting people during my life none more interesting than Michael Miroslav Cic who I meet from time to time for interesting in depth intellectually interesting discussions on a variety of topics. Michael had real over 10, 000 books in the field of all sciences.
Michael advises that he believes he has found the answer to two of the most wanted answers which scientists have been working on for years and involving several $billion. He would like to present them to the following people so they can decide whether the answers to the mysteries of research into the brain should be released to the general public.They are Roger Penrose, Paul Davies, Richard Dawkins, V.S.Ramachandrin, Stephen W Hawkins, Daniet C Dennet and Rupert Sheldrake. Anyway back to our new god..... Michael is writing his 20 page explaination of this NEW GOD and as it relates to the functions of our brain. An interesting and probable explanation of the functions of our second brain. I have encouraged Michael to put his theory into print so that discussion can be generated in many fields. His theory does not insult any current religion as did his previous book which he published as an E-Book in 2001 but had to withdraw from circulation as he felt his life had been put in danger. Was his paranaoia justified I can never know, but i am very keen to find one of the several copies of his 285 page manuscripts which are still in circulation in Melbourne and overseas. I have offered a reward to find a copy of DIALOGUE WITH KONDA,  UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHER ISBN 1876882 530 e-book originally published by ZUES Publishing in 2001 claiming to be 2nd on 10 best sellers ...The book was reviewed by a reader connected the the Victoria Writers Centre but the reader remains unidentified. Even Michaels own long time doctor of 30 years Dr Travaskus of Dandenong read the book but upon reading it, he asked Michael to find another doctor. Why? What was he fearful of?The final draft of his NEW GOD will be ready in two months and will be published on this or a new Blog...stay tuned as they say.

SUPER MINING TAXES ARE WRONG, BUT STATE MINING ROYALTIES OK

Why don't the politicians and former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry be honest and tell the market why they really want a super mining tax? How can a government determine the basis of calculating a super profit is and why would it only apply to mining companies and not banks who make super profits by gearing the use of bank deposits to earn REAL SUPER PROFITS. I'm not saying it should be illegal or unfair or excessive to make super profits in banking or mining, but why or how would government decide or calculate a super profit?
The reality I suggest is that with so many foreign companies taking over mining companies there is a real risk that corporate tax take is going to disappear through price transfer arrangements to the new owners country of origin. I'm suggesting the only way to combat this problem is for the States to increase Royalties, which would favour the mining states...thus causing the federal taxing dilemma.
What do you think?

ROTHSCHILD AGREES WITH ME

On 2nd October 2011 I stated in my blog that Australia needed a manufacturing industry for a variety of strategic reasons, but the 9% Superannuation levy on top of other imposts has put our manufaturing
employers at a greater disadvantage than of those of  overseas employers making
similar products. It is now cheaper to buy from overseas rather than make a
whole range of products in this country. Its not a matter of efficiency anymore
...its a matter of higher cost.

In my view the levy helps  our competitors in two ways; the first benefit being that foreign companys gain a price advantage and secondly the levy $'s are more likely to be invested in foreign stockmarkets to buy into those cheaper manufacturing companies.  The levy also discourages our banks from lending to our manufacturers because the banks know they are doomed to fail.  Are we the clever country or the silly country? While we invest overseas...the overseas companies are buying our cheaper more valuable assets
here and we complain that we are being bought out. WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? ARE WE
STILL THE CLEVER COUNTRY?
In the Australian Newspaper on 4th October 2011 it was reported that Trevor Rowe Executive Chairman of investment bank Rothschild supported my views on 2nd October by saying " You see costs escalating but productivity declining and thats the real problem or conundrum that we have in our economy, because falling labor productivity and rising costs just obviously results in us being less competitive both internally and externally" said Mr Rowe at this week's government run Tax Forum in Canberra. Mr Rowe also went on to suggest that reforming the Australian tax system would help more firms employ more people and also invest in the booming Asian markets? How will that help Australian businesses become more competitive?  But Trevor Rowe was speaking from a Bankers point of view. The only tax reform to help create more jobs would be to abolish state payroll taxes and increase end income taxes , however do we really need more people in jobs at this stage of the economic cycle?

WHICH GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE CHARGES CLIENTS $250 PER HOUR.

Does anyone wish to know which government department in Australia charges $250 per hour and overservices clients to be able to charge that $250 per hour? Ask me if you wish to know.

TOO MUCH CHARITY COUNTER PRODUCTIVE

I would like to proffer the view for discussion that there is too much EASY CHARITY being offered to people who should be capable to learn to stand on their own two feet. Easy charity is not doing society any favours as many of the recipients of charity become reliant on Charity to such a degree that they feel society owes them a living.
I'm suggesting that EASY CHARITY creates and entrenches charity reliant clients. The Charities themselves are are probably unknowingly helping to create more Charity dependent clients
The biggest charity in Australia is the Australian Government on behalf the majority of taxpayers who feel obligated to look after the unfortunate. Government Charity is deemed to be at a level to ensure that most people are able to pay for basic housing and food to survive in Australia. Those who have budgeting skills get on very well and sometimes can afford little luxuries, however many recipients have very little in the way of budgeting skills or have a variety of bad habits which results in the cash grants being squandered on non necessities.
Who should deserve charity from Government is determined by complex regulations and tax benefits, but most charities appear less controlled or structured by regulations and base their giving on religious grounds.  The government has listed thousands of cases of fraud over the years, but charities dont seem to keep any list or cross reference or take account any cases of abuse. Why are they letting fraud go unreported ?What are Charities doing to stop fraud or abuse by serial offenders? What co-operative arrangements are in place between charities to withdraw services for serial charity shopping offenders who may be misusing their charitable gifts by using their Centrelink for illegal or illicit substance purchases? Do charities consider that they may be assisting and subsidising substance abusers by continuing to give excessive assistance to these people without putting checking mechanisms in co-operation with other charities and welfare organisations? What is your opinion?

LIBERAL PARTY WANTS REAL ESTATE AGENTS TO BECOME KGB SPIES ON LANDLORDS WHO DARE TO OFFER ROOMS TO UNRELATED HOMESLESS.- A DISGRACE IN POLICY DEVELOPMENT ? OR LAZY POLICTICS ?

I totally object to LIBERAL PARTY government proposals to require real estate agents to be used like KGB Spies to locate unregistered rooming houses who dare to provide housing for people. 

If an agent observes evidence consistent with occupation of the building by a number of people, rather than the individual, couple or family otherwise identified as lessees, this may provide grounds for a reasonable belief. Examples of this kind of evidence are set out below.

What constitutes evidence of rooming house activity?

There are certain physical signs that may indicate that the building is being used as a rooming house. These may include:

• a large number of residents using the building
• the interior of the building has been changed in a manner consistent with multiple occupation and not envisaged by the lease (e.g. informal, ad hoc building works such as plywood dividing a room into two)
• locks or numbers on bedroom doors
• evidence of a high level of usage of facilities such as kitchens and toilets supported by high water, electricity and gas bills for the building
• a high level of usage of facilities that seem to be inconsistent with the usage envisaged by the lease
• high levels of rubbish and recyclables
• multiple vehicles parked on or off the street
• lots of mail addressed to different people
• multiple individual toiletries stored in bedrooms rather than bathroom
• lessee not living on site
• no communal area
• cooking appliances and fridges in bedrooms
• televisions, kettles, games consoles etc. in bedrooms but not in communal areas
• advertisements of rooms to let
• notices on display (e.g. of where to pay rent, to keep areas clean, etc.)
• caravans or sheds converted into bedrooms
• many mattresses on the premises.

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Excessive compliance costs and the constant media announcements of threats of heavy fines for ‘rogue’ or ‘unscrupulous’ landlords will only have the effect of reducing the number of operators prepared to offer such accommodation and result in the responsibility falling totally on the State Government to provide such facilities. Regulators sometimes forget who is at the coalface at keeping most of the homeless people from sleeping under bridges. 

Operators are just not renting out rooms and collecting the rent like a normal rental property; they need to deal with the various personalities and dynamics of the group living under the one roof.  Good operators are not offering or qualified to be social workers or mental health professionals which however invariably they become involved in providing are holistic services not originally factored into the rental return equation. For this very reason, many banks will not fund such investments resulting in higher funding costs. When one factors the higher responsibility, outgoing expenses and excessive time required to manage these group accommodation facilities; the high profits claims are not just correct. Even some of the operators themselves may be looking for a getting out opportunity which some Council actions actually helps to give them an excuse to close down.

Though some Council staff claim that many owners are just using the homes as Rooming Houses temporarily for when they can go ahead and re-develop the land into a higher use value; unfortunately the councils appear to be speeding up the closure process by annoying the operators?

POLITICAL DIPLOMACY

Politicians and their policy makers have all the answers when they are trying to get votes, but some of their statements of solutions are just not sound economics. I will touch on some economic realities and welcome debate from students and politicians too in my future blog.

LANDLORDS POINT OF VIEW

Being a rooming house operator is a tough business because everyone views the operator as greedy, unprofessional or often viewed on TV tabloid news and current affairs as offering unhealthy accommodation with tenants constantly complaining about the mess or mould.

Most operators are vilified without any real reason except it makes good tabloid media. How would you like to be named as greedy, unscrupulous, rogue landlord taking advantage of the desperate, disadvantaged, vulnerable and disenfranchised poor homeless? All words devised to belittle the endeavour of those who for whatever reason are in the commercial business of managing accommodation for customers who most have many choices where they choose to reside, if only they could learn to live with others harmoniously with their family and friends  or pay their rent elsewhere,.

Now put yourself in the shoes of an operator...well most of you would not bother ...and if you would not...who would bother to house the homeless when everyone in the media, the charities complain about record numbers of people sleeping in the streets, on park benches, in cardboard boxes, under trees etc.

Will you consider making your spare room available for other families rejects? What are the real risks of renting out a room to a stranger? [Remember recent case of a serious assault of a female Good Samaritan who provided a bungalow free of charge to a homeless guy]  Is it a good financial decision to rent out a spare room or bungalow? What are some of the solutions and options avail now to increase the number of rooms for the homeless fast? These and many more questions will be attempted to be answered in my future blog. I won’t be pulling any punches, I might protect the not so innocent by not using their real names, but my blog will tell it as it is in my several years experience. But most of the diplomatic comments will be reserved for this submission.

I had the benefit of 10 years experience as a Trust Officer/Manager with the Public/State Trustees, so dealing with such clients was an easier fit for me personally when I started in the crisis accommodation business by accident some years ago in Dandenong when contacted by Hanover Welfare Services seeking Crisis accommodation for homeless families. Now I deal with most of Melbourne's Welfare agencies and ANCHOR COMMUNITY WELFARE & COMMUNITY HOUSING of Box Hill on a daily basis and try to assist when we can. Maroondah Hospital is also having problems placing Psychiatric ward patients in suitably supervised accommodation, so they can free up their beds for other emergency mental health in-patients. 

Thank you for reading this part of a lengthy 20 page expose of life as a Rooming House operator from the point of view of an operator who cares and I hope the readers are mindful of the various issues I have raised in their deliberations when framing legislation designed to protect stakeholders.

Kind Regards

Gilbert - Director

GILLYS ROOMS

GUARDIAN ESTATES PTY.LTD

Operators of NORRIS LODGE - LILYDALE

C/- 97 Napier Street,

St Arnaud Vic 3478

0407855224

Guardian Estates Pty Ltd has many year experience in the management of Rooming Houses using best practice techniques and we are now offering to share our expertise with new rooming house property stakeholders, government departments and agencies or others experiencing difficulties in management. We are able to prepare reports on how to improve management of both public and private group accommodation facilities. Email: gillysrooms@hotmail.com  

FIRST DRAFT- LEGISLATED LOSSES ON CRACKED STOCKMARKET

The Australian Superannuation Levy system was introduced by the Federal Australian Government with great fanfare in the belief that it would guarantee the retirement incomes of Australian workers in retirement. The government legislated that every employer would then pay  9% of salary into a Superanuation fund on the belief that by the time the workers retired they would have a suitable retirement income due which the government would not have to contribute any or very little if any.
These assessments were made by the Insurance industry and banking industry who were keen to manage those funds and earn substancial revenues in the $billions.The industry produced a case which showed the the Sharemarket Indices generally rose over time and that if suitably qualified fund managers followed prudent investment procedures it would guarantee very good returns over time be higher than inflation even if sharemarkets were to go down every so often as it indeed did during the GFC in 2008. Statistics would show how the Indices always rose since the times when they were first created, but what they did not show was that the groups of stocks were always changing by including good new stocks like Telstra and the Commonwealth bank to replace defunct stocks like Ariadne, Bell Resources and other out of favour or worthless stocks which the funds usually lost money on.
Having worked in funds management since 1970's and as an Estates administrator later on...I found many portfolios with worthless share certificates of defunct stocks in many deceased estates portfolios. These portfolios like so many others prior or since are repeated in history many times not only by individual investors but also by Institutional Investors still in business today.  The defunct stocks once were included in the indices but were removed after they had colapsed suddenly either due to economic turmoil or fraud by company management which could not have been forseen by the investors prior to their collapse. The investors who had presumed that their investments would have done better than inflation, actually lost 100% of their capital investment.
Many people assume that these so called professionals are smarter more educated and that they are the market experts to be entrusted with their valuable assets. I believe it is because many investors are just too lazy and believe that strangers are smarter than them and appointed people like Madoff to look after their nest eggs.These  examples are just the tip of the iceberg examples and do not cover other means of legal fraud which occurs in the market place, but what I am attempting to show is the futility and disadvantage this type of government policy is doing to our local economic stability.
Australia needs a manufacturing industry for a variety of strategic reasons, but the 9% Superannuation levy ontop of other imposts has put our manufaturing employers at a greater disadvantage than of those of  overseas employers making similar products. It is now cheaper to buy from overseas rather than make a whole range of products in this country. Its not a matter of efficiency anymore ...its a matter of higher cost. The levy helps our competitors in two ways; the first benefit being that foreign companys gain a price advantage and secondly the levy $'s are more likely to be invested in foreign stockmarkets to buy into those cheaper manufacturing companies.  The levy also discourages our banks from lending to our manufaturers because the banks know they are doomed to fail. Are we the clever country or the silly country? While we invest overseas...the overseas companies are buying our cheaper more valuable assets here and we complain that we are being bought out. WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? ARE WE STILL THE CLEVER COUNTRY? We are being told that we need to diversify because we cant pick winners and we need to invest in diferent markets for the future....so Super funds continue to invest in mainly financial assets which are the most violatile and with a higher risk of loss through natural or printed inflation in foreign lands.
I dont believe in all the conspiracy theories but it almost seems like it is an intended policy to rob wealth from the middle classes who enjoy the benefits of what I call "borrowed profits" only to lose them again every time we experience a GFC. More good money after bad...history repeating itself over and over again. One of the problems is human EGO. It has become too fashionable to hold shares in large seemingly profitable companies, to be able to tell everyone that you go to annual meetings and vote on various pretermined matters....get a free lunch and rub shoulders with other paper millionaires. The stress of seeing shares go up and down everyday must make some people feel alive? But when they attend insolvency meetings I see the living dead grieving their losses looking for explanations of what happend? who is responsible? who should be going to jail? Anyone recall the Cox Bros insolvency which went on for at least 30 years if i recall correctly... The reality is there is no easy way to make or protect your financially based assets from losses through INFLATION, FRAUD OR MISADVENTURE.
I will give my point of view on the issue of  destructive power ofcapital gains taxes which are causing our banks to be trading whilst insolvent?