Jacqui
Kennedy established the Our House Swap website 10 years ago so that tenants
could list their current house and desired living arrangements for potential
matches.
Before the site was
established, tenants took out advertisements in their local newspaper hoping to
garner interest. Sadly, this has proved unsuccessful in most cases; and waiting
for Housing NSW to arrange a transfer can take many years.
Ms Kennedy believes that
Housing NSW relies on a large percentage of people to get so frustrated with the
process that many will give up their housing security and move into the private
rental market to obtain appropriate housing for their family.
Once a match is made there
is no guarantee that a swap will be granted approval by the housing
authorities.
Ms Kennedy recalls a case
of two householders who had found a suitable match in Tasmania yet had their
move delayed because of bureaucratic rigidity. One couple with two children and
about to have a baby had a two-bedroom unit. The other tenant who lived in a
three-bedroom house wanted to downsize into a smaller home after her children
moved out to find their own accommodation.
Housing refused the
exchange on the basis that the tenant living alone must relocate to a
one-bedroom – even though one-bedroom accommodation is a rare configuration for
public housing. Ultimately, the Ombudsman had to intervene to see the exchange
go through.
The activity on the site
is high. Ms Kennedy estimates around 17,000 registrations in the 10-year period
since it started, with 500 successful matches every year.
Given the success of the
venture, Ms Kennedy hopes to use this experience to look for other ways the
community can become active, instead of being at the mercy of government
policies and procedures.
She has joined others in
the area to form the Groundswell Coalition (whose website she has designed and
maintains). It is a reaction to the Built Environment and Master Planning
process launched by the planning authorities, which has the potential to impact
significantly on housing in the area. Groundswell is working hard for greater
clarity on the nature of these impacts. S
www.ourhouseswap.com.au
www.groundswellcoalition.org.au
Source: November 2011
South Sydney Herald http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/