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Boarding houses

People with a mental illness have been found to live in both licensed (licensed by DADHC to provide accommodation to people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities) and unlicensed boarding houses (privately owned boarding houses). Instead of just providing a room, licensed boarding houses provide a higher level of service, including the provision of food and the coordination of other services, such as mental health care. Two participants interviewed for this study lived in unlicensed boarding houses and two lived in licensed boarding houses.

No Home, No Justice? acknowledged some of the issues experienced by people living in unlicensed boarding houses.¹²⁴ These included:

• Unsanitary and dangerous conditions
• Arbitrary eviction
• Unsatisfactory lock systems and belongings being stolen
• No regulation over rent or late penalties
• Lack of legislative protection.

Similar issues confront residents of licensed boarding houses with the predominant legal issue being that licensed boarding houses (just like unlicensed boarding houses) fall outside existing tenancy protection.¹²⁵ Hence, boarding house residents are not protected against arbitrary eviction. The NSW Ombudsman has reported that if mistreated, “in many instances residents are too frightened to complain in case they are either punished or evicted”.¹²⁶

In addition to a lack of tenancy protection, service providers also commented on the poor quality of service provided by some boarding house operators. An investigation officer from the NSW Ombudsman reported receiving many complaints about licensed boarding houses, regarding the adequacy of nutrition, appropriate support available to residents, and appropriate medical attention.¹²⁷ A community worker raised concerns over the lack of privacy given to residents, unsanitary and dangerous conditions in boarding houses, and violence directed at residents from boarding house operators and other residents.¹²⁸ In its investigation into two particular licensed boarding houses, the NSW Ombudsman documented an incident where a person with a mental illness had his bank account accessed and all the money withdrawn while he was in hospital.¹²⁹