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.

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.