The NSW Ombudsman is calling for significant improvements to the delivery of disability modifications in public housing.
The ombudsman’s call follows an investigation which found that the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) and the Housing division of the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ Housing) had failed to meet the needs of tenants with disability.
Tabling his report Modifying public housing properties to meet the needs of tenants with disability – issues identified through complaints, the Ombudsman Paul Miller said his Report told the stories of three public housing tenants who requested reasonable disability modifications to make their homes safe for them.
“Government policy says the process should have taken 30 days,” Mr Miller said.
“Instead, in each case it took over a year,” he said.
“There were repeated failures to respond to the tenants and occupational therapists, miscommunications between contractors and Government Agencies, and failures to keep proper records.”
Mr Miller said that in the meantime, the tenants were forced to live in premises that were unfit or unsafe for their needs.
He said his investigation found unacceptable delays in the delivery of disability modifications, poor communication with tenants, failure to keep accurate and comprehensive records, insufficient oversight of contractors’ work, and ineffective complaint-handling.
“DCJ Housing and LAHC failed to inform the tenants about important decisions made about their requests, and at times were not able to provide accurate information because of their own lack of visibility over the work of contractors,” the Ombudsman said.
“Responses to complaints were unreasonably delayed,” he said.
“In several cases DCJ Housing failed to advise tenants of the outcome of their complaints.”
Mr Miller said tenants were able to complain to his Office after they had already raised their concern with DCJ Housing and LAHC, and not received a satisfactory response.
He said that when his Office engaged with the Agencies, that particular tenant’s issue was resolved quite quickly.
“However, what we have not seen is a sustained improvement in the overall trend of complaints, which continue to raise similar issues.”
The Ombudsman made 27 recommendations, including that DCJ Housing and LAHC apologise to tenants where appropriate, and that both Agencies conduct an in-depth root cause analysis of delays in processing requests.
The Ombudsman’s 56-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
