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40 years her home, but Housing ACT tells Yvette to go

Yvette van Loo in her Ainslie home… “I know this is not my house, but it is my home, and when it was given to me it was on the understanding that it was for good.” Photo: Belinda Strahorn

A CANBERRA grandmother could be forced out of the public housing residence she’s called “home” for 40 years.

Yvette van Loo’s Cowper Street home in Ainslie has provided a lifetime of memories, and the prospect of leaving the place she has raised her two children in is distressing.

“It’s disgusting,” Ms van Loo says. “I feel as if I’m being treated like a cow that’s being made to change pastures.”

The 74-year-old is one of more than 300 social housing tenants – including  elderly people, people with disability and people with chronic health issues – that received letters from Housing ACT saying they would have to move from their homes as part of the territory government’s “Growth and Renewal” program.

The retired musician, who has a piano in her living room, loves her home and neighbourhood, and is finding it difficult to comprehend why she’s being moved on. 

“You can relocate a bus stop, a garden bench or a rubbish bin, but you don’t relocate people,” Ms van Loo says.

“I know this is not my house, but it is my home, and when it was given to me it was on the understanding that it was for good.”

Ms van Loo’s own family history is one of displacement, having relocated from Algeria to France, before emigrating to Australia half a century ago.

She is happy and settled where she lives, and doesn’t want to move.

“I was kicked out of my birth country and now I don’t want to be kicked out of my home, just so the government can make money out of us,” Ms van Loo says.

Ms van Loo says the unsigned letter she received in February – advising tenants they would have to move because their homes had been earmarked for sale or redevelopment as part of the public housing renewal program – caught many residents unaware and did not keep to Housing ACT’s earlier correspondence that the program would be on a voluntary basis.

She is critical of the lack of sensitivity and compassion Housing ACT displayed in notifying her of their intent to relocate her from the home she has lived in for more than half her life.

“This is despotism,” Ms van Loo says.

The ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) has criticised the housing department’s heavy handed approach to the relocation of some of its oldest and most vulnerable tenants, and has called for a review of the program.

“It’s so callous and cruel,” says ACTCOSS CEO Dr Emma Campbell.

Dr Campbell says the welfare organisation and other community groups had been overwhelmed with calls from “distressed” tenants, many of whom were older women and long-term residents of their homes.

“Some have lived in their homes for 20, 40, even 60 years, many have mental and chronic health issues and the majority of them are struggling to understand what their rights are and who can advocate for them,” Dr Campbell says. 

It’s difficult to take calls from people who are so frightened by what might happen to them, and who feel they have no control or power against the government.”

While ACTCOSS recognises the need for new and improved social housing options in the ACT, it has questioned the handling of the program.

“We don’t disagree with the ‘Growth and Renewal’ program, the issue we have is how it’s being implemented,” says Dr Campbell.

“We just want to make sure that vulnerable people are placed on an equal footing when they are engaging and negotiating with Housing ACT, and that there are proper processes in place to take into account the individual situations of tenants,” Dr Campbell says.

Dr Campbell says organisations have not received any additional resources to cope with the greater demand for their services arising from calls from concerned tenants.

But she’s hopeful for improved outcomes for residents facing relocations following a meeting with the ACT Housing Minister Yvette Berry scheduled for this week.

In the meantime, Ms van Loo has joined forces with other social housing tenants and started the Housing ACT Tenants Facing Relocation Association, in the hope of fighting back.

This isn’t the first time Ms van Loo has stood up to protect her home. The 1930s dwelling was facing demolition in the 1980s and she mounted a successful campaign to prevent it from happening.

Another trashed hellhole ignored by Housing ACT

 

 

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7 Responses to 40 years her home, but Housing ACT tells Yvette to go

Bindy says: 23 March 2022 at 10:54 am

This is no different to how the Mr Fluffy people, got treated. This Government has no empathy.

Reply
Rodger says: 23 March 2022 at 3:30 pm

“I know this is not my house, but it is my home, and when it was given to me it was on the understanding that it was for good.”

Since she understands that where she lives in not her property she is being an eviction notice and she would have no different legal standing if she was renting from a private person; notwithstanding I sincerely sympathise with her plight.

““I was kicked out of my birth country and now I don’t want to be kicked out of my home, just so the government can make money out of us,” Ms van Loo says.”

This has become standard operating practice for this Barr Government and it is just heartless. It extracts taxes and monies from wherever and from whomever it can.

Reply
yvette van loo says: 24 March 2022 at 10:52 am

Thank you for your comments, Rodger, I appreciate your sympathy! When you rent a property privately, you sign a lease for a determined period, it could be three months or a couple of years, after which the owner can ask you to vacate his property. When I signed my contract with Housing 40 years ago, it was made clear to me that it was for good, as long as I paid my rent regularly, which I did. Government rental meant security. That’s the big difference between the two.

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Na says: 9 May 2022 at 1:52 pm

You have an endless lease? Leases are renewed in certain time period in public housing, be that 12 months or 10 years (it is determined on an individual level based on circumstances) but they are not endless. Your lease would also include the need to move if it was deemed necessary. As long as they relocate you to another suitable property then that’s all they have to do.

It’s far from heartless, no one likes change but allowing more people to access public housing is for the best. It’s public housing, it’s to benefit the public as a whole and not specific individuals. I am a housing tenant and do really understand this being my home but not my house. I have compassion for your situation but also for the thousands of others still waiting.

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Greg Hollands says: 23 March 2022 at 3:18 pm

Just a recommendation that these people go and see a “class action” lawyer. As Ms van Loo says, she was given her house originally on the understanding that it would be forever – now that has changed, at least from the ACT Government’s viewpoint. If there was an implicit understanding that as long as she paid the rent, the property would be hers for life, that is an implied condition of the contract and may be held to be enforceable by a Court. You only need some competent Counsel to argue the case. It may even become a “cause célèbre” ( just like in “The Castle” ) – all you need is a “just compensation” argument!

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Natalie Kay says: 23 March 2022 at 4:40 pm

Haven’t lived in ACT for over 20 years! BUT grew up there, and have nothing but great Childhood / young adult memories! Last time I was there; 2019/20 – the place has gone to the Dogs! Building / shoving units / Apartments on EVERY spare patch of ground, AND in the process demolishing, and losing some of Canberras most Iconic Suburbs and Areas! Losing it’s MUCH loved ‘Character’ & History! SAD!😨😨 Don’t GET me started on the MESS they’ve made of Northbourne Avene!?? WTF! JUST looks a Messy Disgrace! I could barely drive…..was nearly CRYING with the MESS / SHAMBLES they’ve made of our ONCE BEAUTIFUL Capital!💔💔😨

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Yvette van Loo says: 24 March 2022 at 11:04 am

You are so right, Natalie. Our Bush Capital, our Garden City with its leafy suburbs are a thing of the past. In the last few months, I have seen the number of houses being sold in Ainslie increase drastically. Old timers do not want to live here any longer. Its heart breaking to see dual or triple occupancy becoming the norm. Gone are the huge gardens, the trees, the space. Canberra is losing its charm and its quality of life is rapidly going down…

Reply

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