By Peggy Giakoumelos, SBS Radio.
The New South Wales Coroner has sharply criticised conditions in a Sydney boarding house where six people died, saying it amounted to a "Dickensian picture" of neglect.
Coroner Mary Jerram called for an overhaul of the industry, saying those who died at the Marrickville boarding house in 2009 and 2010 were over-sedated and under-nourished.
She found that on weekends the boarding house had just one unqualified staff member to deal with its 35 residents, and there had been more than 20 complaints recorded in the two years prior to its closure.
The Coroner's report comes shortly after the NSW government promised a new package of reforms to protect boarding house residents, many of whom have a mental illness or an intellectual disability.
OVERCROWDED
SBS spoke to Laurie Burgess, a former police officer who has worked at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre in Sydney for about seven years, about the conditions endured by some boarding house residents.
“You usually find that there is anything from two to 20-odd rooms and that's what the person rents out,” he said. “They share a bathroom a common bathroom and they share a common kitchen.
“To give you an idea of one boarding house which is unlicensed which is so overcrowded that four people on one floor must go through another person's room to get to a shower.
“It gives you an idea of in some cases where they can be very intrusive and they're paying a lot of money for it.
Mr Burgess spends his days identifying and supporting people at risk in unlicensed boarding houses - many of them with a mental illness or a drug and alcohol problem or both. He says it would be ideal if people with a mental illness in unlicensed boarding houses were identified, but often they're not.
But not all unlicensed boarding houses are run-down, Mr Burgess says, noting many provide low-cost accommodation sorely lacking in the inner city.
“To a person who is working it can be a cheap option of accommodation, and that's the way they choose to live,” he said.
“With other people there that are on benefits in relation to disability pensions, Newstart, who want to live in a certain area, that's possibly the only accommodation they can afford and while they're trying to improve their lot these places are available to them and it fulfils their purpose at that moment.
Licensed boarding houses are protected by government legislation and provide accommodation to people with a disability - usually a mental illness or an intellectual disability.
But even licensed boarding houses don't provide secure tenure. Residents can be evicted with little notice, and rents can be raised with little warning.
Those working with this section of the population say there needs to be reform of the NSW Residency Tenancy Act to prevent people from being evicted so easily.
Chris Martin, the Senior Policy Officer at the Tenants Union of NSW, says boarding houses both licensed and unlicensed were originally set up as short-term accommodation, and were never intended to house vulnerable people with a range of health problems like they do now.
“There is a place for boarding houses and they can provide a valuable service,” he says.
“Our trouble is that it's been an unregulated, disorganised sector and hasn't provided a very good service.”
CHEAP HOUSING
It's estimated there are approximately 200 unlicensed boarding houses in the Marrickville Council area alone, and at least as many in other inner-Sydney suburbs.
Newtown is among these suburbs – made up of Victorian terraces and more recently-built apartment blocks, it was once a destination for post-war migrants, and provided cheap housing for those wanting to live close to the city.
Boarding houses sprung up around this time and many remain, along with similar properties in the inner suburbs of Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. While the licensed boarding house sector across Australia is now in decline, many unlicensed boarding houses remain.
REFUGE
Jacob has come to the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre for a cup of coffee and a chat with Laurie Burgess.
“They give us dodgy type of receipt, I don't think it's licensed,” he says. “I was applying for Housing Commission for a long time, nearly about 20 years - still I didn't get anything else.
“I've got two kids, so I want them in just decent accommodation. Just to come and visit me. I can't bring them here, sometime the boy comes, he knocks and says can you call my daddy. He's seven years old. I want to be near to them you know.”
Jacob says he was made homeless after his eviction from the unlicensed boarding house he had lived in for six years.
“I was evicted because he wants to renovate the place - I'm living in my car now,” he says.
When he's not staying at a homeless shelter, Jacob lives in his car. He was paying $130 per week for the boarding house room – a house he shared with about four other people.
He says most of the other residents had alcohol problems and he found living there very depressing. Unable to get into the private rental market, and on the waiting list for public housing - he says he had no choice but to stay.
SHOCKING CONDITIONS
The unlicensed boarding house is yet to close, and Jacob still has access, so he offers to show SBS around.
If you see it inside it's mouldy. It's very toxic, you can't live... any decent human being you can't... I can't explain it,” Jacob says.
Outside the building are a number of broken wooden chairs, looking like they date back to the 60s, and the place looks like it hasn't had a coat of paint for decades.
Inside, a man is sitting in what looks like a living room - it turns out to be his bedroom.
It's also the only way other residents can get to the kitchen.
The man on the couch doesn't have much to say. Jacob takes us to another part of the house - a room that has been vacant for a few weeks after its former resident was moved into supported accommodation.
“The guy … I don't know … he have a stroke or something like that,” he says. “For two days I didn't see him. For two days the light is on, the door is closed and then I ring him. I have his telephone number.
“When I ring him the telephone is ringing. When he didn't answer I then called the landlord and I say I think this person is dead, do you want me to call the police or the ambulance.
“'No no no', he says, 'I'm coming'. Yeah, but he's dead... I told him but he's dead.
“I thought, 'Because he's sick, he came'. He called the police, the police came down and they took him. I didn't see all the drama. I left.”
It turns out the man was unconscious, and survived the stroke. Jacob and the other residents were told to always call the landlord first in case of an emergency.
The sight of the stroke victim's room is distressing - a filthy mattress, empty alcohol bottles, ashtrays full of butts, and other rubbish.
The smell is strong - musty tobacco, sweat - windows have not been opened for a long time. Jacob is just happy to have found the man in time.
“If I left him like that he would have been dead,” he says. “Even if he doesn't know it, I told him I saved your life.
“You would have been dead. 'Oh really,' he say...yeah. Nearly two days, nobody because people you know they drink.”
SUPPORT PROGRAMS
The Boarding House Project at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre also works with people in licensed boarding houses, running weekly social support programs.
The centre says that while some welfare groups are critical of licensed boarding houses, they do provide much-needed accommodation for people with a disability.
However, the Tenants Union says NSW remains behind other Australian states in terms of tenancy agreements between residents and landlords and in the rules governing the way boarding houses are set up and run.
The union says placing a large group of people with disabilities in the same home - such as in a licensed boarding house - can isolate them further from the community. It would prefer to see alternative types of accommodation for people with disabilities, such as group homes, or single accommodation in some cases.
Hayley is a community worker in Sydney - she helped supervise her aunt's move into a boarding house after many years of institutional care.
“My aunty had a mental illness, was diagnosed with a mental illness as a young woman and she lived in an institution for many years,” she says.
“And it must've been about 15 years ago she was moved into a boarding house. I can remember with my aunty when she moved into the boarding house, the first three or four years was the happiest time of her life.
“It was the first time she made friends. For the first time ever she would walk up the street. Basically she was part of a community. It was for her a very happy time.”
CLEAN, LICENSED HOUSES
Cavendish Lodge, in Croydon in Sydney's inner west, is a licensed boarding house that accommodates 24 people. Its manager Cheryl Behrend started working there 40 years ago, when it was a nursing home, and stayed when it became a boarding house in the 1990s.
The place is spotless, yet not clinical, with a living room filled with dried flowers, a piano and decorative ornaments. Most of the residents have single rooms, while some share, and most have schizophrenia or brain damage.
To live there, residents must be assessed and meet certain criteria set by the Department of Health, Ageing and Disability.
There is no curfew at Cavendish Lodge, and meals are provided for all the residents, most of whom are men. Alcohol is strictly banned from the premises.
Despite the relatively comfortable nature of Cavendish Lodge, and others like it, disability groups say licensed boarding houses are not good enough for people with disabilities.
CALL FOR CLOSURE OF ALL BOARDING HOUSES
The inquest into the Marrickville boarding house deaths found only one of the six disabled people who died received any first aid treatment prior to emergency services arriving.
Advocacy group, People With a Disability, is calling for the closure of all licensed boarding houses in New South Wales. Spokeswoman Sonya Price-Kelly says the coronial inquiry highlights the poor conditions endured by residents of licensed boarding houses.
She says people tend to sub-consciously accept a lower standard of accommodation for disabled people than for those without a disability.
“(People With a Disability) believe that private for profit, housing options are not good options for people with disabilities,” she said. “[They] typically congregate people in larger numbers and isolate people from the community.
“And certainly we would be calling on the NSW Government to plan for the immediate closure of all licensed boarding houses and to relocate those residents into safe housing in the community with appropriate individualised support.”
Hayley's aunt became part of the push out of institutional care and into the community that occurred after the release of the Richmond Report in the early 1980s.
The report recommended a move away from long-term institutionalisation for people with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities in NSW.
Hayley says despite legislation to protect those in licensed boarding houses, on many occasions rules and regulations were not followed and her aunt was left vulnerable.
“The problem was that when she moved into her last boarding house was that there was no regulations to protect her,” she said. “It was really just like another institution, she had to eat her meals at certain times.
“Five o'clock at night was the time they had their last food, their last meal.
“After that, the fridge was locked they had to pick the lock, even if they wanted a cup of tea at night. And they actually worked out how to do things like that.
“So it was really quite horrific that last boarding house, and that's one of those issues I have with boarding houses.
“There's not enough protection for residents that live in there.”
AUDIO: SBS Radio reporter Peggy Giakoumelos interviews Lou Schetzer, policy officer with Homeless Person's Legal Service.
