Another collosal f**kup aimed at targetting vulnerable parents dealing with DoCS"
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- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Tuesday, 25 June 2013 23:30
- Written by News.com.au
PUBLIC housing tenants with spare bedrooms will be charged a weekly tax as the NSW government commits to moving 500 people a year into smaller accommodation.
Community Services Minister Pru Goward will today announce details of the controversial bed tax, which will be charged to all public housing tenants who have an extra bedroom and refuse to move to a smaller property.
Singles with extra bedrooms will be charged an extra $20 a week, and couples will be charged an extra $30 a week under the tax.
Ms Goward said there were more than 17,000 public housing properties with three or more rooms that are occupied by singles or couples, and she is prepared to cop some resistance to the idea.
"I ask all the tenants with vacant bedrooms in their property to think about the needy families with children who remain on the waiting list,'' Ms Goward said.
"These tenants should think about putting up their hand to move to a more suitably sized property.
"The government has looked at a number of ways to encourage more families with children into multi-bedroom homes and were unsuccessful. We need a stronger incentive.''
The government expects to reap $2.2 million from the rehousing of tenants, but Ms Goward said it was not a revenue-raising scheme.
The state government will target suburbs with high numbers of public housing tenants with extra rooms, where there are large numbers of families on the waiting list that need those rooms. It is understood Liverpool, Mount Druitt and Shellharbour will be the first suburbs targeted when the push begins in September.
Ms Goward said tenants would only be charged the tax if they refused to move: ``Everybody will benefit, existing tenants will be rehoused more quickly, families waiting for help will receive it sooner and the NSW taxpayer whose dollars will be used more efficiently (will benefit).''
Blake Johan, 21, was born with cerebral palsy and his family of four have been on the government housing waiting list for seven years. They currently live in private housing.
Blake's father, Dean, said the bed tax initiative was a good way to get the right residents into the right homes.
"If they're not using the room they should be paying extra for it,'' Mr Johan, from Barrack Heights, said.
"There's plenty of people waiting and waiting.''
