One of the promises made before the last New South Wales election was a review to cleanup bad behaviour by public housing tenants. Legislation to achieve that is now passing through parliament and all new tenancies will in future be subjected to a twelve month probationary period and eviction will follow should the department issue three bad behaviour warnings in any twelve month period.
The department is also going after those who understate their income to gain fake rental subsidies. Continuing the tenancy will depend on an acceptable pay-back arrangement to restore the rent lost, and this will not be subjected to endless appeals to various courts.
Perhaps the most beneficial change is the removal of the need for other tenants to personally front a tribunal and in the presence of the offender give evidence of the conduct that a bad tenant is causing.This introduces a fear factor because those giving such information must return to their tenancy with the prospect of pay-back to them and their family. A refusal to testify usually means no action is taken - and the bad behaviour continues indefinitely.The collection of evidence will now be undertaken by Commission staff and be presented in court in video format. The confidentiality of complainants will be respected.
One of the issues causing disquiet is the claim that rapists, paedophiles and violent thugs will be removed from public housing. It could be inferred that those who commit crimes that the public find repugnant will automatically be excluded from public housing when they are released from prison, and that would create new problems. In the past some released prisoners have been hounded and driven from any residence by angry mobs and made virtually homeless. When a prison term is completed it is complicit with the freedom gained that the ex-prisoner will return to society. In most cases, public housing is the only such option available.
It would be dangerous to exclude specific criminal convictions from the ability of access to public housing. Our law system is based on rehabilitation and release is after automatic review by a control board. It makes no sense to release a long serving prisoner if that person is destined to live on the streets and basically exist as a vagrant. Vagrancy is a crime that can attract an additional prison term.
The vast number of public housing tenants are good people who live and behave in a civilized manner. Many with criminal convictions mend their ways and become model citizens and it would be unreasonable to totally exclude the risk factor by banning them from public housing tenancy. It is also unlikely that such a provision would survive a High Court challenge.
Strangely, the public attitude to prisons still belongs in the "lock ém up and throw away the key " era.
Outrage at the news that an escape tunnel has been discovered at our most secure prison housing the Supermax - and disgust that a prisoner at Kirkconnell Correctional centre escaped less than a day after he was housed at that institution.
Kirkconnell is a virtual "open prison " used to condition those about to be released and this escapee is a 23 year old jailed for break and enter offences. He has demonstrated that he is not ready for release, and he will be shortly recaptured and will serve additional time for that escape - plus the remainder of his original sentence - is a high security prison. The entire prison system is a degree of punishment and rewards. Rewards have to be earned - and in some cases risk is necessary to test if conduct is genuine - and this seems to be one of those cases
It would be a pity if well meaning public housing laws inflicted further punishment on those genuinely reformed !
No comments:
Post a Comment