Search or view whole report

View PDF

Discrimination

Illegal discrimination has been identified as a factor that not only affects people while they are homeless but may also contribute to their becoming homeless. For example, discrimination against people trying to gain access to accommodation may contribute to them becoming homeless. Discrimination against people in relation to employment may contribute to general financial disadvantage, which in turn may compound the risk of homelessness.

Discrimination against certain groups of people trying to access accommodation in the private rental market has been raised as an issue in consultations for the current study and in the literature, racial discrimination being a particular issue for Aboriginal people.

Discrimination for our Aboriginal clients is huge in terms of …quite well-demonstrated cases of people being told …that places have been let when they haven’t actually been let … particularly around tenancy and things like boarding houses and private rental market. We get lots of complaints of people being refused accommodation …and finding that … one of their mates came around half an hour later and got offered the place.¹¹⁸

Age discrimination was also raised as a particular problem for young people:

Young people often have trouble accessing private rental, because real estate agents will not let them sign leases. Sometimes the youth services will sign a lease on their behalf, but this can lead to problems.¹¹⁹

Chung et al. in their study on domestic violence and homelessness also refer to marital status discrimination against ‘single mothers’ by some landlords and real estate agents who are reluctant to let premises to ‘single mothers’ receiving income support.¹²⁰ Chamberlain and MacKenzie also identified this group as facing discrimination when seeking housing:

Louise is a single mother with three children. She was employed as a secretary at a local school, but left her job when she was diagnosed with a serious illness. Then her landlord issued a notice to quit. To her surprise she encountered considerable discrimination. Real estates were reluctant to rent a property to a single parent who was not employed. She has been moving from place to place, trying not to outstay her welcome.¹²¹

One transgender participant and one caseworker working with transgender clients who was interviewed for this study reported experiencing discrimination in both finding accommodation and in the job market:

When you’re talking about things that have led to homelessness, we’ve got quite a few transgender clients who have lost jobs, have been refused accommodation, have you know been discriminated against in a range of different ways that have contributed to them becoming homeless.¹²²

Trying to rent a property, they want to know your financial history, your employment history. If you’re a transgender and you’ve been a street worker for eight or nine years, where am I going to find a reference for a house? Where am I going to find a financial history? I’m not. No one’s going to give a transsexual prostitute a loan. No one’s going to give a transsexual prostitute a job. No one’ s going to give a transsexual prostitute a roof over his or her head. If you try and take these issues up you find you get a black mark against your name.¹²³

People with complex needs such as drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness, who are over-represented in the homeless population, are reported to routinely be discriminated against in accessing employment and housing.¹²⁴ This further exacerbates their risk and experience of homelessness. Discrimination on the basis of psychiatric disability will be investigated further in the Law and Justice Foundation’s Access to Justice and Legal Needs of People with a Mental Illness report.

Finally, people who are homeless appear also to be discriminated against on the basis of their homelessness: in employment and in accessing employment, transport and goods and services. According to Lynch, people who are homeless are turned away from restaurants, refused bus entry and rejected by landlords. Lynch concludes that while there continues to be no legal protection from discrimination against a person on the basis of their socio-economic status, homeless people will continue to be discriminated against.¹²⁵ Thus, people rendered homeless perhaps from being discriminated against on the grounds of their race, gender and marriage status attract further discrimination and added barriers to redressing their situation as a consequence.

Discrimination in SAAP services

Stakeholders consulted for the current study reported that certain groups of homeless people are being denied access to some SAAP services on the basis of mental illness, substance abuse or a history of violent behaviour.¹²⁶ Some stakeholders felt that people with complex needs were being denied access because SAAP services are not equipped (with funding and appropriately trained staff) to assist people with mental health and/or substance abuse issues.¹²⁷ Comments were also made that eviction (usually on the basis of breaking service rules such as bringing alcohol onto the premises) in some circumstances was wrongful; that sometimes the decision to evict was left to the discretion of the worker;¹²⁸ and that there had been in the past reports of an ‘unofficial blacklist’ preventing some people from accessing particular hostels for behaviour infractions.¹²⁹

The NSW Ombudsman recently reported on the issue of exclusion and eviction of people with complex needs from SAAP services.¹³⁰ It found that many SAAP services had specific policies to exclude people with a mental illness, drug and alcohol problems, people with disabilities, people who exhibited challenging behaviour, pregnant women or people unable to pay for accommodation. The NSW Ombudsman recommended that SAAP services should move away from a “presumption of risk to considered assessment and risk management”, whereby “policies, procedures and practices are inclusive, and that any exclusions be based on considered assessment of the presenting circumstances of individual clients and fair and transparent exiting procedures”.¹³¹

Consultation with the Gender Centre also suggested that some SAAP services are reluctant to provide services to people who are transgender, and described incidents where a person’s identity was not recognised and they were placed with people from the opposite gender.¹³² Reflecting on her experience in accessing supported accommodation, one transgender participant said:

They wouldn’t let me stay in the women’s section and made me stay on a men’s floor. I felt really unsafe. I had to leave. I didn’t think I could complain to the Anti-Discrimination Board because I thought that the (service) had an exemption on the basis of religious grounds.¹³³

This may act as a barrier to people accessing services. For example, one stakeholder working with gay and lesbian young people consulted for the current study said that gay and lesbian young people reported fear of discrimination deterred them from accessing SAAP services.¹³⁴