2020-09-28
The ACT Greens today have announced a comprehensive package to support Canberra renters, including building more affordable rental homes, ending no cause evictions, banning rent bidding, and more funding for housing advocacy services.
The Greens’ plan includes:
- Ending ‘no cause’ evictions, allowing people to stay in their houses and make their house a home
- Increasing the number of affordable rental properties in Canberra
- Making rentals more sustainable and affordable to live in
- Making renting easier, by streamlining the rental application process, banning rent bidding, properly funding tenant advocacy services and supporting people who face discrimination into secure rental homes.
The Greens last week announced plans for a $50 million targeted fund to improve the efficiency and sustainability of Canberra houses. In June the Greens also committed to a $450 million ‘Home for All’ package, including a $200m investment into new community housing over four years that will help ease pressure on Canberra’s tight rental market.
The Greens have long fought for Canberra renters. In the 9th Assembly, the ACT Greens secured a number of major improvements for Canberran renters, including:
- Changes to the Residential Tenancies act to allow renters to have pets in their homes
- Ensuring that landlords need approval from ACAT to refuse consent for minor and reversible home modifications, like picture hangings
- Requiring landlords to provide non-standard lease terms to renters up front, well before they go to sign a lease
- Closing loopholes for landlords to end tenancies early.
Comments attributable to Rebecca Vassarotti, ACT Greens Housing spokesperson:
“Everyone deserves a safe and secure place to live.
“Almost a third of Australians rent, and many are renting for longer periods of time.
“But for too long, rental properties have been treated as investments, with the rights of landlords put well ahead of the rights and needs of renters.
“In Canberra, this means sky-high rents to live in often unsustainable and even substandard homes that are freezing in winter, and boiling in summer.
“The COVID pandemic has only made life tougher for Canberra renters who are already struggling to make ends meet.
“Now, more than ever, we need a housing system that works for the many, not the few.
“The Greens plan will end ‘no cause’ evictions so landlords won't be able to kick someone out of their home just because they think they can get a higher rent from the next tenant. Requiring a ‘just cause’ will give renters the right to stay in their houses for years unless the landlord has a genuine reason to terminate a tenancy.
“The Greens plan will ensure that renters get a better deal.”
The full details of the package can be found here