Comments on the Federal Government’s draft Homelessness Bill 2012
RLC welcomes the introduction of an exposure draft bill that identifies the need to address homelessness in Australia through legislative reform. From the experience of RLC specialist tenancy workers, RLC has identified the need to provide greater protection for the rights of people at risk of homelessness, or who are living in a tenancy arrangement not covered by the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 NSW such as boarders and lodgers.
RLC is concerned about the failure of the exposure draft bill to provide any substantive legal rights or obligations for people at risk or experiencing homelessness, and in particular the insertion of section 13 of the Bill. It is the view of RLC that any legislative response to the area of homelessness would need to take a rights-based approach.