After a close call with a fire in their motel room, a couple experiencing homelessness says some short-term accommodation sites are failing to meet basic safety expectations, putting lives at risk.
When Edward Richards and his partner, Jessica Hall, found themselves homeless after leaving their social housing complex in Tasmania, they traveled north for a fresh start.
They had hoped an Albury motel they accessed through a NSW government-supported service for the homeless would be a safe place to stay until they got back on their feet.
Instead, they said, they were shocked to find the site did not have a working smoke alarm when a fire broke out.
“Jess had fallen asleep, I’ve gone and had a shower and came out of the bathroom and the whole room is just full of smoke,” Mr Richards said.
“[There was] no smoke alarm going off or anything.”
The fire started after Mr Richards draped clothing over a light.
While he conceded that it was a misjudgment, he was still concerned that vulnerable people were being placed in unsafe temporary accommodation.
“It’s funded by the government,” he said.
“They are putting you in hotels that are breaching building codes that the government themselves are putting in.”
Council acts on complaints
An Albury City Council spokesperson said it was the council’s priority to inspect high-risk premises, and said the motel room had been assessed after the couple complained.
“We are investigating whether some fire safety measures may have been interfered with by occupants of the premises and are working with the owner of the premises to improve fire safety measures,” AlburyCity’s team leader of education and compliance, Andrew Hill, said.
He said the council had received one other complaint in 2024, for which action was required to rectify fire safety measures within a building.
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By law, building owners must ensure fire safety standards are complied with and maintained, while councils and NSW Fire and Rescue are authorized to regulate fire safety measures in buildings.
But the Albury motel was not the first temporary accommodation venue that the couple had felt unsafe in.
“The first hotel we were put in had a conjoining door to another room which didn’t have a lock on it,” Mr Richards said.
He said safe and stable housing would make a huge difference to his and his partner’s lives because it would give him “time to actually fix my life in general instead of just looking for houses”.
No standards for temporary accommodation
Social services organization Homeless NSW’s CEO, Dominique Rowe, said the couple’s story was not unique.
“We hear stories of the accommodation being quite poor quality,” she said.
“So that might mean people might feel unsafe in the accommodation because the door’s not working the way it should, or the windows aren’t properly lockable.
“We have also heard a number of situations where the accommodation is quite inaccessible for people with disabilities and so they’re unable to get the accommodation that they need when they most desperately need it.”
Ms Rowe said people could access temporary accommodation provided by homelessness support services and participating providers if they had nowhere else to stay.
But, she said, there were no set standards for temporary accommodation providers and that needed to change.
“It’s important to know people accessing temporary accommodation are at their most desperate,” she said.
“Unfortunately, they are forced into temporary accommodation that often barely or does not meet even those needs.”
Ms Rowe said in one recent case, a woman escaping domestic violence with twin two-year-olds was placed in temporary accommodation with no access to kitchen facilities.
“The system needs a complete overhaul in New South Wales and I think not only do we need more funding for temporary accommodation and homelessness services, we urgently need more social housing,” she said.
Accommodation boycotts
In Victoria, some short-term accommodation options have been deemed “uninhabitable” by one homelessness service.
A 2020 submission from the Northern Homelessness Network to the Inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria stated its service system network was operating in a permanent state of crisis.
“The conditions of existing privately operated emergency and temporary housing are in complete disrepair and often uninhabitable,” the submission read.
“In an unprecedented move the Northern and Western Homelessness Network have resolved to boycott several underperforming private accommodation providers due to the conditions of the properties.”
In the northern region, three providers offered 1,330 assists during 2018/19 at a total cost of $268,208.
“These short-term emergency accommodation venues can no longer be used as they are extremely poor quality and dangerous,” the submission stated.
“It is a difficult decision, however the standards must be improved to be considered a viable and safe alternative.”
Huge demand hinders standards
The need for temporary accommodation is growing, with Homelessness NSW figures showing 68,000 people sought help from specialist homelessness services in the state over the past year.
However, half of those seeking assistance by trying to access services were turned away.
Rents in NSW have hit record highs, and about 26 percent of people experiencing homelessness have a job.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness are in that circumstance due to the housing crisis, 38 percent have financial difficulties, and 35 percent are women and children escaping from domestic violence.
Homelessness NSW wants to see minimum standards introduced for temporary accommodation venues, including cooking facilities, lockable doors and windows, clean, safe and functioning bathroom facilities, as well as beds.
A lack of temporary accommodation versus growing demand could make implementing simple standards tough, according to Ms Rowe.
“The temporary accommodation providers, if they had to [meet] standards, either might not be able to do so because they are at that lower end of the market or might not want to, which would reduce the supply,” she said.
The ABC has contacted the NSW Minister for Homelessness, Rose Jackson, for comment.
Tags: Urgent call basic safety standards introduced temporary housing homeless
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