Once upon a time this was a mirrorWhat's wrong with private rooming houses?

General

• Victoria has a severe shortage of affordable housing.

• This has caused greater homelessness and a proliferation of privately owned, and mostly unregistered, rooming houses in disused commercial space and suburban homes.These often involve illegal and unsafe building works.

• Inadequate regulation and the lack of mandated minimum standards mean that privately owned rooming houses can operate for maximum profit, with little regard for the safety oramenity of residents.

Issues for private rooming house residents

• All rooming house residents have legal rights under theResidential Tenancies Act 1997. However, these rights (including the right to quiet enjoyment, 24 hour access to facilities, written notice of entry or eviction) are frequently violated by privateoperators.
• Many residents feel powerless to advocate for their own rights due to fear of eviction, violence and intimidation. Residents are often unable to leave an unsafe situation as alternative accommodation options are extremely limited.
• Private rooming house residents may face issues including:
  
  • Safety Many private rooming houses lack smoke alarms, safe access and are poorly maintained. Residents can be exposed to harassment or violence by other residents, visitors and operators in communal areas and rooms
  • Privacy Rooms may not have lockable doors. Sharing of inadequate facilities can cause conflicts. There may be an inappropriate mix of residents, eg. women and children sharing with older single men. Increasingly, houses that are unsuitable for multiple occupants are being ‘converted’ into rooming houses using cheap and inappropriate building materials, eg. lounge rooms or office premises being partitioned with plywood boards.
  • Security Residents have limited security of tenure and are often evicted with little or no notice. Residents are often harassed and threatened by landlords, other residents and uncontrolled visitors.
  • Financial exploitation Residents frequently pay up to $300/week for a small room and shared facilities. Rent payments are often more than half a person‘s total income, indicating severe housing stress. Landlords who direct debit rental payments from Centrelink payments have been known to keep taking payments after the resident has left. Operators withhold bond payments without good reason.
  • Health and hygiene Shared facilities such as toilets, showers and kitchens are often inadequate, dirty and poorly maintained by operators

How can anyone maintain a decent property living with more than 12 strangers in a poorly maintained property?Issues for homelessness and housing workers

Every day workers in the homelessness sector are faced with private rooming houses as the only accommodation accessible for many of their clients. Rising rental costs, low numbers of available properties and a decline in public and community housing stock has created this situation.

Even as a last resort, workers should not be forced to offer housing advice that might place people at risk. This takes its toll on housing workers and contributes to workforce burnout and loss.

Both workers and people experiencing homelessness have to make difficult choices about whether it is safer to move into poorly regulated private rooming houses or to sleep on the street.

Housing workers inform clients to the best of their knowledge about any known issues in a particular rooming house and provide information on rights and responsibilities.

However, housing referral workers are not funded or resourced to inspect properties or to provide ongoing outreach or follow up services. 

The role of unregistered rooming houses in Victoria’s crisis housing and homelessness systems

Victoria’s chronic shortage of affordable housing has created the perfect environment for unscrupulous operators to profit by turning formerly unrentable properties into accommodation targeted at those excluded from the mainstream private rental market. With a captive audience and weak regulation there is no incentive for operators to provide safe, secure and affordable accommodation to individuals and families.

For people experiencing homelessness, private rooming houses are often the only accessible option during the long wait for transitional and public housing. Other than short-term shelters/refuges, or expensive and unsustainable options like motels, private rooming houses have filled the vacuum and are
now a substantial part of Victoria’s crisis housing system. This means that the need to make them safe is urgent due to their central role in housing thousands of homeless Victorians. 

What you can do

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