HAAG was quite disturbed recently to see an article in The Emerald Hill Times that quoted a recommendation from the Tenants Union of Victoria for 50% of public housing to be transferred to private housing associations.

Ease housing stress

KEVIN Rudd rightly alerts the community about the cost of an ageing society (The Age, 25/1). However, governments can ameliorate the impact of higher health expenditure and anticipated lower tax revenue. There is an urgent need for adequate housing for older people on low incomes.

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EVIE WALLACE

Evie Wallace turned 100 in December 2009 and Housing for the Aged Action Group would like to pay special tribute to her.

The launch of the new look website for Housing for the Aged Action Group was on Tuesday 27th October 2009.
The website has been a collaboration between Sarah from Webellion and Kaye from Housing for the Aged Action Group.

The final step of gently taking down the previous website as developed and maintained by Maree (HAAG) and replacing it with the new site was orchestrated by Theo, (Webellion).

Fine words, but follow-up needed on helping the homeless
MICHAEL PERUSCO October 21, 2009 The Age

Public housing is the wrong target in any stimulus wind-back.

EARLY this year, the Federal Government took a bold and long overdue step when it committed $6.4 billion to public and community housing as part of its stimulus package. Over the next two years, 22,000 units will be built to help deal with the terrible shortage of affordable housing in Australia.

A stigma that hits home
Date: October 06 2009
The Age

Jason Dowling

When did Melbourne become a society of intolerant, closed communities filled with misplaced paranoia about providing public housing for people in desperate need of it? So far this year three proposals for new public housing developments have run into stiff opposition from local residents.

The latest case occurred when hundreds of locals attended a public meeting last week to oppose a planned 49-apartment social housing development on the Nepean Highway in Bentleigh.

28 September 2009
ABC PM

MARK COLVIN: It's the battle of the Premiers versus the pensioners.

The Federal Government is fighting a rearguard action to stop the States keeping for themselves up to a quarter of the recent increase in the aged pension.

The fight centres on the rent paid by pensioners who live in public housing.

It normally increases along with the pension, because it's calculated as a percentage of tenants' income.

29 September 2009
The Age
by Yuko Narushima

THE states and territories have vowed to press ahead with plans to charge pensioners in public housing an extra $7.50 a week rent from September next year - despite strong objections from the Rudd Government.

The extra charge will amount to a quarter of the $30-a-week increase in the single age pension announced in the May federal budget. At the time, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demanded that the states make the increase exempt from public housing rent calculations.

12 September 2009
The Age (Domain), Saturday
by Mary Costello

Retirees have a range of choices, but make sure you know all the costs, writes Mary Costello.

For many baby boomers without enough supernnuation, downsizing becomes a seductive option when they finally evict the children. The sale of the family home can pay for a smaller place, clear debt and maybe even fund an agreeable retirement, but where do you spend the rest of your life? Read on...

August 2, 2009
Paul Bibby
Sydney Morning Herald

BETH, 70, survives on eggs and packet soup for days at a time.

Beverley, 65, cannot afford to replace her iron and is struggling through winter without a heater.

Simon, 67, stays at home because buying a $2.50 pensioner’s travel ticket would mean going without bread.

A new study has shed light on the desperate situation faced by a growing number of pensioners who cannot gain access to public housing and devote a huge portion of their income to the cost of renting in Sydney.