Rental stress for NT pensioners locked out of public housing because of asset limit change

When Frances Czoloszynski retired at 67 last June, she took a pre-emptive step to secure government housing.

Applicants face a wait time of at least half a decade for most types of public housing across the NT, so Ms Czoloszynski gathered her paperwork, ready to begin her years-long climb to the top of the wait list.

“I thought ‘right, now I’ll go to housing and put my name down,'” she said.

“I got all the paperwork they wanted, back and forwards, went in, sat back and waited — and then I got a letter saying I wasn’t eligible.”

Ms Czoloszynski lives in a private rental in Palmerston where she pays below-market rent to a private property owner, earns a pension and has few assets.

But she said she was rejected because she had about $100,000 in superannuation. 

In the NT, tenants already in single-bedroom public houses who are older than 55 can have assets — including savings, superannuation and property but excluding cars and furniture — worth up to about $255,000 and remain in their housing.

But in January 2016 — under the former CLP government — the asset limit for new tenants was slashed from about $195,000 to $60,000.

It has since risen over that period to about $70,000, but people like Ms Czoloszynski remain ineligible.

The current Labor government did not directly respond to a question about whether the change was an attempt to cull the sprawling urban public housing wait list.

But a spokeswoman for Urban Housing Minister Kate Worden said it was introduced to recognise public housing should support those “most in need”.

‘A very, very tight squeeze’

Advocates are concerned many seniors will now have little choice but to spend their superannuation on the Top End’s inflated private rental market, where rents have risen and vacancy rates tumbled in recent months.

“For a unit like this, it’s $320, $350 a week,” Ms Czoloszynski said.

“I only get just over $1,000 a fortnight. I wouldn’t be able to survive. I wouldn’t be able to feed myself.”

The NT government’s own housing strategy says there is a “critical undersupply” of housing and limited affordable private market properties for people on income support payments.

Sue Shearer from the Council on the Ageing NT said pensioners forced onto the private market could struggle to cover basic living expenses, although she noted the existence of Commonwealth rent subsidies. 

“It’s going to be very difficult for them on an old age pension to actually survive in private housing,” she said.

“It still does not leave a lot for the bare necessities of food, running a car, maybe health insurance, other issues that you obviously need money for. 

“It’s a very, very tight squeeze for seniors.”

Ms Shearer is calling for more appropriate housing options for the NT’s elderly, including new retirement villages.

“If you were a cynic… one might say that they did this to cut the wait list,” he said.

Housing numbers go backwards

The concerns have been raised as the urban public housing wait list has grown in recent years, with more than 5,000 current applications for housing and transfers.  

Despite this, the NT government recently announced it would demolish a 32-unit housing complex in the Top End city of Palmerston, with occupants to be moved into housing elsewhere. 

The 2019 demolition of a 75-unit block in the northern Darwin suburb of Nightcliff sent the government’s total public housing stock backwards in the 2019-20 financial year, according to department documents.

Ms Worden’s spokeswoman said the government was making up the shortfall with two social housing developments in Darwin, including one with nearly 80 new places.

“We are building 78 social housing units, specifically designed for seniors and people living with disabilities, at John Stokes Square, which is made up of 66 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom units,” she said.

“We are also bringing in more access to appropriate, accessible and affordable housing.”

Meanwhile, Ms Czoloszynski’s super balance is shrinking.

She is concerned she will be at least in her mid-70s by the time she makes it to the top of the wait list for a single-bedroom unit, which is six-to-eight years long in Darwin and Palmerston.

“I’ve got $78,000 in super left. I’m okay at the moment with my housing, but I don’t know what my future holds,” she said.

“I don’t feel secure.”