Tools for Success (and eviction)

Women living in social housing can apply for a $5 000 scholarship to help them train for a trade, under the Tools for Success program announced this week by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.

This is a great opportunity for social housing tenants, and a great initiative by NSW FACS.

Not so great is the fact that if a public housing tenant actually takes up the opportunity and gets a job paying more than a certain amount, Housing NSW will terminate her tenancy at the end of its fixed term.  

And even if she's not near the threshold, she might think twice about doing any overtime, because Housing NSW will take up to 55 cents in each additional dollar she earns, because of its higher rent rates for 'moderate income' earners.

The State Government is to be commended for initiatives like Tools for Success, but it hobbles these initiatives, and the efforts and aspirations of public housing tenants themselves, with policies – reviews as to continuing eligibility, and moderate income rent rates – that discourage work.

To make a success of Tools for Success, Housing NSW should abolish those policies and make it so that public housing tenants have nothing to lose from training and working.