A major provider of social housing is facing scrutiny after hitting pensioners with two rent increases in one year. The elderly residents in Melbourne's south-east say they're now in financial stress. The provider, Housing First, says the rents were unsustainably low when it took over the homes of 165 residents in Armadale a few years ago.
00:00This tiny studio used to cost David Phillips $254 a fortnight, but this year his rent has risen twice.
00:10You don't cut down on the expenses of your foods. That's what I will do.
00:16While some of the hit was absorbed by rent assistance, the twin hikes cost residents at this pensioner's community housing precinct in Armadale an average of about $50 per fortnight each time.
00:27Mr Phillips is living more frugally than ever.
00:30So it makes it difficult to pay insurance for medical, plus all your cost of energy and food, just your cost of living, makes it so near impossible.
00:42Mr Phillips moved here nine years ago at a time when the property called Glenlock was run by a private charity charging very low rent.
00:49About two years ago, it changed hands to not-for-profit provider Housing First, which told residents it would increase rent in line with its growing community housing portfolio.
01:01After the latest rent rise, more than 20 Glenlock residents have told the ABC they're now in financial stress.
01:07They're asking for their housing provider, which is a not-for-profit, to demonstrate to them the care that it should be providing to them.
01:16Housing First says the rent rises it issued on residents this year are legal and justified, and that the rents were unsustainably low when it took the properties on a few years ago.
01:26We, for a long time, have been calling for an ombudsman for retirement housing issues, and that ombudsman should be a free service for residents, and it should be quick.
01:38David Phillips says his fellow residents are scared to speak out against Housing First.
01:42deles happens, and they see the call, at the thewest.
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