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Private rental accommodation

Four participants from this study lived in private rental accommodation. Service providers reported that people with a mental illness face a number of barriers in trying to access private rental accommodation. They may be vulnerable to discrimination because of the stigma associated with their mental illness.⁸⁵ They may not possess the necessary references (or they might have bad references) to gain private rental accommodation.⁸⁶ Furthermore, because many people with a mental illness are financially disadvantaged, they might not be able to raise the bond money, or to pay for private rental accommodation—particularly those living in Sydney.⁸⁷

Once people are in accommodation, it would appear that they are still vulnerable to discrimination.⁸⁸ A caseworker from a regional area was of the opinion that once a landlord establishes that a tenant has a mental illness, they can be very quick to try to get rid of them:

The landlord might have observed them [the tenant] trying to cope with schizophrenia, depression and drug addiction. They tend to become very antagonistic [although] they do it very diplomatically. They’ll just go to the real estate agent and say “I’m pulling the house off the market, I’m moving into it or selling it: I need them out.”⁸⁹