Assisting the authorities with their inquiries

... and we're back. Happy New Year, Brown Couch readers.

It's a busy start to 2014, with two separate government inquiries into housing being conducted. The Tenants' Union will be making submissions to both.

The first is the inquiry of the NSW Legislative Council Select Committee on Social, Public and Affordable Housing. We expect our submission will focus on the problems caused by the failure of social housing supply to keep up with demand, and particularly the inefficient, perverse and destructive outcomes of trying to address the imbalance through evermore tightly rationed access to social housing, such as through reviews as to eligibility and higher rent rates for moderate income earners, tough rules for succession and tough rules for staying on the waiting list.   

The second is an inquiry into 'affordable housing' by the Senate Economics References Committee. Because this a Commonwealth-level inquiry, we expect our submission will focus on the bigger picture of affordability problems across the housing system, and how our tax and finance settings make these problems worse.

You can help inform our submissions by sharing with us your own housing experiences – whether that's in dealing with the complexity and perversity of an increasingly meaner, not-necessarily leaner social housing system, or in trying to get housed affordably in the private market – by leaving a comment here on the Brown Couch, or on our facebook page.