Metro Housing - Tenant Selection Process

Objectives

• To implement fair and transparent tenant selection and tenancy management processes
• To ensure that tenants have a clear understanding of their rights and responsibilities
• to help all tenants to achieve long-term sustainable tenancies
• to be responsive to the changing needs of tenants
• to ensure the financial resources of the organization are managed effectively

1. Eligibility Criteria

There is a common process for assessing eligibility for social housing across NSW called Housing Pathways.

Housing Pathways has been developed with Housing NSW, 28 Community Housing Providers and the Aboriginal Housing Office to establish one application system and a single state-wide waiting list.

For information about the cross-sector, state-wide eligibility policy visit:

www.housingpathways.nsw.gov.au/Am+I+Eligible/Social+Housing.

2. Application Forms

Application forms can be picked up from any participating social housing provider, or can be found on the Housing Pathways' website:

www.housingpathways.nsw.gov.au/Additional+Information/Forms.htm.

3. Assessment of Eligible Applicants *

Before the introduction of Housing Pathways, Metro Community Housing used a ranking system to assess the urgency of a client's application for housing assistance. We used a points based scoring system to rank eligible applicants in order of priority based on their overall score.

Applications were scored with points allocated according to the following criteria:

1. Years on Waiting List
   1 Point for each year on waiting list after first year (to maximum of 5 points).
2. Disability/Chronic medical conditions (supporting documentation required)
   1 Point for mild disability
   2 Points for serious disability
   3 Points for life-threatening illness
3. Ties to the area
   1 Point for people who have resided in the inner west for over 5 years, have a child who has attended school in the area for over 2 years, or who have family, cultural, medical, support networks in the area.
4. Age
   1 Point for young people (18-21 years); and for older people (60-65 years)
   2 Points for older people (66-70 years)
   3 Points for older people over 71 years or Aboriginal people over 45 years
5. Family Situation
   1 Point for a single parent with 1 child or a couple with 2 children
   2 Points for a single parent with 2 children or a couple with 3 children
   3 points for a single parent with 3 or more children
6. Housing Situation
   1 Point for people paying more than 30% of their income in rent or living in overcrowded housing (adults without a bedroom, more than 2 children under 10 sharing a bedroom, children of different gender over 12 years sharing a bedroom)
   2 Points for people paying more than 50% of their income in rent or living in sub-standard housing
   3 Points for people who are homeless
7. Other Circumstances
   1 Point for persons from Non-English speaking background with poor English or poor literacy skills
   2 Points for people experiencing domestic violence/living in a refuge after escaping domestic violence/recently arrived refugee
   4 Points for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Since the introduction of Housing Pathways in April 2010, common eligibility procedures are used to assess applications. However individual community housing providers are still able to prioritise the waitlist according to their own policies.

In an attempt to create parity between the old points system and the new statewide system, special ranking/waitlist procedures have been put into place for the first phase of Housing Pathways.

In this first phase of the transition, Metro Community Housing uses the same list generated by Housing NSW (for more information visit www.housingpathways.nsw.gov.au), but uses a filter that organises this list in accordance with our ranking system.

This transitional arrangement is in place because Metro Community Housing wanted to ensure that people who were on our individual waitlist and scored highly were not disadvantaged in the change over.

The ranking system is also applied to applicants who were not on Metro Community Housing's individual waitlist. This is done by use of a custom made computer system that extracts the necessary information that the applicant has provided so that the applicant can be given a point score.

* Please note: Ranking system has been temporarily suspended from 1st January 2011 until 31st March 2011, on advice from the Housing Pathways Advisory Council. The program used to calculate ranking is under review. In the interim, Metro Community Housing will follow the assessment/ranking practices used by Housing NSW.

4. Applicant Selection Processes

Allocation of housing stock is based on the scoring system explained above.

When we have a current or expected vacancy the highest scoring applicant for that property type will be contacted in writing and by phone (where possible) by either the Manager or a Housing Worker to confirm their current circumstances. Where there is more than 1 applicant with the same ranking the applicant who has been on the waiting list for the longest period will be made the first offer.

In certain cases Metro Community Housing may filter the search when creating a waitlist, when allocating for particular properties (such as a property that is designated to house only single men or seniors) or allocating to meet certain benchmarks. These are outlined below.

5. Transitional Tenancies

The transitional tenancy waitlist is managed separately from the NSW Housing Register. Suitable clients are nominated by several support providers who have a partnership agreement with Metro. The nominations are then assessed through a collaborative process involving support agencies and Metro Community Housing. Clients must have a t-number or applicant reference number.

Offers of housing are for a fixed-term period of two years. In this time, transitional tenants are expected to make an application for priority housing through Housing Pathways.

If the client can demonstrate that they remain live on the priority housing wait-list but have not been made an offer during the two-year transitional period, Metro Community Housing will only continue to house clients on a three month basis, pending an offer of permanent housing through Housing Pathways.

If an offer has still not been made during this period, Metro Community Housing will renew the three month lease using the same policy as above.

6. Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest may arise in situations where a staff member or someone with a personal relationship with a staff member applies for social housing. In these cases everything must be done to reduce the conflict of interest:

• Management must be informed, and actions and decisions recorded on Conflict of Interest register.
• Staff member involved must not be involved in assessment or allocation process.

7. Offers of Housing

All offers of housing to applicants will be made in accordance with the state-wide Housing Pathways offers policy, which can be found at:

www.housingpathways.nsw.gov.au/

A refusal of two reasonable offers will result in the client being removed from the Housing Register, unless either offer is deemed to be "unreasonable".

8. Withdrawal of offers

If for any reason an offer of housing is withdrawn, the applicant will be notified in writing as soon as possible. A full explanation as to the reasons a withdrawal has been made will be available.

9. Accepting an offer/filling a vacancy

New tenants who have been offered a property will be given a maximum of 14 days to sign the lease on their new property. A Holding fee of $20.00 per week will be required from 3 days after the offer has been accepted.

10. Confidentiality

All information regarding applicants collected during the assessment process, will be confidential and will not be discussed externally except with the specific consent of the applicant (applicants will generally have signed specific consents).

11. Appeals and Complaints

If the client disagrees with the decision that Metro Community Housing has made regarding an application for housing, they should first speak Metro Community Housing about the reasons the decision was made.

If the client is still unsatisfied, they should request a formal review of the decision by the Manager. The Manager will explain the reasons for making the decision in writing.

If the client is still unsatisfied with the outcome of the formal review, they can lodge an appeal with the Housing Appeals Committee. HAC is an independent agency that reviews decisions made by Community Housing organisations and Housing NSW. For information call 1800 629 794 or visit www.hac.nsw.gov.au. capable of independent living or have supports in place to live independently, be over 18 (we will consider applications from tenants turning 18 in next 6 months if they have appropriate support arrangements in place).

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Our Location

48a Norton Street
Leichhardt NSW 2040
Tel: 02 9560 5331
Fax: 02 9560 8027

Our office hours are:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 10am – 4pm
Wednesday 1pm – 4pm
Friday by appointment only
You can also contact us online.