The " Public Housing " question !

The Western world  has come a long way since the days when public housing was strictly quarantined a long way away from where the rest of the community lived.   Vast estates were built without thought for the facilities needed and as a consequence they were often denied schools, public transport, shops and telephones - until many years later.

There has always been a stigma attached to public housing, despite the fact that the vast majority of public housing tenants are decent people who look after their homes and have nice, well tended gardens.  The problem is the small minority who are nothing better than urban outlaws - who break all the rules and try to intimidate their neighbours.

Then there is the tendency of public housing administration to try and localise bad tenants by grouping them in a small cluster of streets.   This thinking works on the basis that it is better to have a " problem cluster " than to have them spread more evenly where they will give whole suburbs a " bad name ".

The real problem was the reluctance of public housing authorities to implement the rules that were in place to discipline bad tenants.  In the past, it was almost impossible to evict a tenant who refused to pay the rent,  turned the yard of a home unto something resembling the local tip, or who was either a convicted, habitual criminal - or an alcoholic or a drug addict - and sometimes - both !

Times have changed.   Slowly - and very reluctantly - the laws are being implemented.   Those that try to terrorise their neighbours are being given their marching orders - and for the first time this is influencing others to mend their ways.  New thinking is being applied to the location of public housing and  new estate planning is on a " PPP " basis - a " Public/Private/Partnership ".

Where a new suburb is planned the mix of private and public housing will be on at least a 70/30 basis and it is expected that this mix will result in a lift in standards.   At the same time, the design of public housing has moved away from the dreary little three bedroom box to something that fits in well with it's private home surroundings.

Perhaps the greatest change is one of thinking.    In the past, many people saw public housing as a " right " - and acted accordingly.    That seems to have changed to one of both parties now having " mutual obligations " -  and the housing authorities have the " teeth " to ensure that those obligations are met.

Perhaps the day is fast arriving when it will be impossible to distinguish between public and private housing in our new suburbs.