Publications

This joint submission with Consumer Action Law Center focuses on five key areas that have emerged as central to retirement village reform in our casework and in feedback from our members: resident rights, contractual complexity, unfair fees, management standards, and dispute resolution. The case study illustrates the ways these issues are connected and compound each other to the detriment of retirement village residents.

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Fiona York, Executive Officer of Housing the for the Aged Action Group, gives evidence to The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality & Safety about the obstacles facing older people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to accessing Aged Care.

This submission is based on the experiences of our members and clients living in retirement housing, who have embedded networks in their villages.

Read the submission here

This written submission is provided by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria (RRVV), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) and COTA Victoria (COTA Vic). The need to address widespread problems in the retirement housing industry is long overdue. We welcome industry efforts to better protect and promote the rights and interests of older Australians who choose to live in retirement housing. We also generally support the
aim of the Draft Retirement Living Code of Conduct (the Code), which is to ‘improve accreditation standards and coverage, and to set and maintain high standards about the marketing, selling and operation of Retirement Communities’. However, we do not consider that the Code distributed by the Retirement Living Council (RLC) would achieve these aims or properly address resident concerns without significant amendments....

Read the full submission here

Consumer Action (CALC), RRVV, HAAG and COTA Vic have provided feedback about the proposed amendments to retirement villages fact sheets.
The group do not oppose the proposed amendments to the fact sheets, but are concerned that this is not a good enough tool for protecting residents from entering into unfair contracts...

View the submission here

Housing for the Aged Action Group has responded to the call for submissions to the Victorian Inquiry into the Re-development of a number of public housing sites.

A number of recommendations are contained in the submission including the following:

• Tenants must be consulted meaningfully. Each tenant should receive a letter inviting them to consultation about the process. Given that many tenants may speak languages other than English or have low-level literacy, these letters should be delivered by an individual who can then sit down with the tenant and a telephone interpreter if necessary to explain its content. Translated letters are not enough.
• Advocates (non-DHHS) are employed to work with every tenant about their housing and relocation needs, including planning for the type of housing stock and the design of their new homes.
• Tenants are moved into new stock that is built on the property- reducing disturbance such as having to relocate schools, find new health care providers etc.
• Representatives of an independent advocacy service should be on-site on a daily basis and available to answer any questions tenants have
• All new stock should be public housing.

The full Submission can found here

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February 2017 - COTA SA

COTA's submission provides recommendations for the Government of South Australia to consider as it formulates its 2017-18 Budget. Within their Housing section, they reference HAAGs own Home at Last service and suggest trialing such a service in SA...

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September 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Alternate forms of tenure’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members, specifically the Independent Living Unit (ILU) working group and the Caravan and Residential Parks and Villages (CARPAV) working group, and this forms the foundation of our response...

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August 2016

This submission is a response by Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG) to the ‘Regulation of property conditions’’ issues paper forming a part of the review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

HAAG would like to acknowledge that the submission was compiled with contribution from our members and that this forms the foundation of our response.

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