‘Social housing' is rental housing that is owned or managed by the government or a community organisation and let to eligible persons. About one in twenty New South Wales households live in social housing.

A generation ago, social housing was let mostly to low-income and moderate-income working families. Now it is let mostly to single persons and households on very low incomes who often have other problems in their lives.

Governments have failed to properly finance social housing. In the 10 years from 1996, the Commonwealth Government stripped more than $3 billion from funding to social housing – almost $1 billion of that from social housing in New South Wales. Around Australia, social housing stocks have declined relative to the total housing stock – and in many States, social housing stocks have declined absolutely.

Governments have also implemented rules for targeting social housing to the most needy households, and these rules have further undermined the viability of social housing. In New South Wales, under the State Government's ‘Reshaping Public Housing' reforms social housing tenants on ‘moderate incomes' face punishing rent increases and the termination of their tenancies. These reforms create a poverty trap for social housing tenants and further marginalise social housing neighbourhoods.

At the same time, social housing tenants are increasingly being treated differently at law. Recent amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act have inserted new terms about water charges and old debts into social housing tenants' agreements, created new grounds for terminating social housing tenancies, and reduced the scrutiny of the Tribunal in relation to evictions from social housing. Public housing tenants may be required to sign ‘Acceptable Behaviour Agreements', additional to their usual tenancy agreements, under threat of eviction.

The TU opposed to legislation that places additional, unfair burdens on social housing tenants. We are opposed to using residential tenancy law to enforce draconian ‘law and order' policies.

We seek renewed investment by governments to make the social housing system – and social housing neighbourhoods – sustainable again.