Call this a home? is a coalition of peak bodies, organisations and individuals committed to safe rooming houses in Victoria. We believe every Australian has a fundamental right to safe, secure and affordable housing.
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- July 5 2009
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Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria posted a campaign update. Check it out.
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
Call this a home? campaign update
Apologies for the delayed update. By now you will have heard the great news – on Friday 30 October, the Premier announced that the State Government will adopt all 32 recommendations of Martin Foley’s Rooming House Standards Taskforce including:
• Mandatory registration of rooming hous...e operators and premises;
• Improving standards of safety and amenity;
• Strengthening compliance and enforcement; and
• Increasing the supply of alternative rental housing.
Government media release: www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content
Government announcement documents, including the Rooming House Taskforce report: www.housing.vic.gov.au/community-and-hou
The “Call This A Home?” campaign working group immediately welcomed the Victorian Government’s response (www.callthisahome.net/media-releases). The peak bodies involved in the Call This A Home? campaign – Tenants Union of Victoria (TUV), the Council to Homeless Persons (CHP), Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS) and the Community Housing Federation of Victoria (CHFV) – participated in the task force and fully support the final recommendations as a necessary and comprehensive suite of reforms.
We would like to acknowledge the efforts of each and every one of you in bringing about this momentous social change. A heartfelt THANK YOU to:
• the workers in the homelessness, health, mental health and other sectors who first highlighted the plight of rooming house residents
• the students and lecturers at RMIT Human Rights Campaign Workshop who conceived the initial campaign ideas and donated their time, expertise, design, website and printing services throughout
• the individuals and organisations that signed on as campaign supporters
• rooming house residents and former residents who had the courage to come forward with their stories
• the journalists and media outlets that followed the story relentlessly
• our FaceBook fans and the people who signed our petition and mailed in postcards and wrote letters to the newspapers
• those in local and state government who took up the challenge and refused to let the issue go away.
The Call This A Home? campaign partners will continue to work closely with the Government to ensure the changes are implemented as quickly and comprehensively as possible.
In the meantime, please stay in touch with us via the Call This A Home? website (www.callthisahome.net) and keep advocating for rooming house reform as the changes come into force in your area.Read More
Apologies for the delayed update. By now you will have heard the great news – on Friday 30 October, the Premier announced that the State Government will adopt all 32 recommendations of Martin Foley’s Rooming House Standards Taskforce including:
• Mandatory registration of rooming hous...e operators and premises;
• Improving standards of safety and amenity;
• Strengthening compliance and enforcement; and
• Increasing the supply of alternative rental housing.
Government media release: www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content
Government announcement documents, including the Rooming House Taskforce report: www.housing.vic.gov.au/community-and-hou
The “Call This A Home?” campaign working group immediately welcomed the Victorian Government’s response (www.callthisahome.net/media-releases). The peak bodies involved in the Call This A Home? campaign – Tenants Union of Victoria (TUV), the Council to Homeless Persons (CHP), Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS) and the Community Housing Federation of Victoria (CHFV) – participated in the task force and fully support the final recommendations as a necessary and comprehensive suite of reforms.
We would like to acknowledge the efforts of each and every one of you in bringing about this momentous social change. A heartfelt THANK YOU to:
• the workers in the homelessness, health, mental health and other sectors who first highlighted the plight of rooming house residents
• the students and lecturers at RMIT Human Rights Campaign Workshop who conceived the initial campaign ideas and donated their time, expertise, design, website and printing services throughout
• the individuals and organisations that signed on as campaign supporters
• rooming house residents and former residents who had the courage to come forward with their stories
• the journalists and media outlets that followed the story relentlessly
• our FaceBook fans and the people who signed our petition and mailed in postcards and wrote letters to the newspapers
• those in local and state government who took up the challenge and refused to let the issue go away.
The Call This A Home? campaign partners will continue to work closely with the Government to ensure the changes are implemented as quickly and comprehensively as possible.
In the meantime, please stay in touch with us via the Call This A Home? website (www.callthisahome.net) and keep advocating for rooming house reform as the changes come into force in your area.Read More
Source: www.premier.vic.gov.au
A $77.2 million investment to boost the supply of quality rooming house accommodation and stricter regulation of operators are part of a new package announced today to improve rooming house standards and support vulnerable Victorians.
Martin Foley
To all those groups and rooming house tneants who worked with the recent Rooming House Taskforce Thank You for your contributions to our work.
please see the link below to the Rooming House Taskforce Standards report.
Martin Foley.
Chairperson
http://www.housing.vic.gov.au/community-
please see the link below to the Rooming House Taskforce Standards report.
Martin Foley.
Chairperson
http://www.housing.vic.gov.au/community-
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria This advertisement (below) appeared in today's Herald Sun. Please write a letter today to hsletters@heraldsun.com.au mentioning the ad and calling on the Victorian Government to makerooming houses safe and protect vulnerable residents urgently.
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
This advertisement (below) appeared in today's Herald Sun. Please write a letter today to hsletters@heraldsun.com.au
mentioning the ad and calling on the Victorian Government to make
rooming houses safe and protect vulnerable residents urgently.
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
Write a quick letter to the editor and support vulnerable Victorians today - Email letters@theage.com.au before 5pm Friday http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society
Source: www.theage.com.au
On AFL grand final day in 2006 a young couple lost their lives when a run-down Sydney Road rooming house caught fire. With no working smoke detectors or sprinkler system fitted in the room, they awoke ...
Coroner calls for rooming house reform The Victorian Coroner, Peter White, has recommended sweeping changes to rooming house licensing and regulation after an inquest into the deaths of Leigh Sinclair, 25, and Christopher Giorgi, 24, in a Brunswick rooming house fire in 2006. The Call this a home...
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society
Source: www.theage.com.au
On AFL grand final day in 2006 a young couple lost their lives when a run-down Sydney Road rooming house caught fire. With no working smoke detectors or sprinkler system fitted in the room, they awoke ...
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
Death traps: the growing problem of substandard rooming houses
Local councils say they simply don't have the
resources to police the growing problem of sub-standard rooming houses.
Their claim follows recommendations from the Victorian Coroner, who
this week highlighted some of the appalling conditions in the industry.
It w...as reporting on the deaths of two people in a rooming house fire
three years ago and has now called for stricter registration and
inspection of rooming houses. Cheryl Hall has the story.
MoreRead More
Local councils say they simply don't have the
resources to police the growing problem of sub-standard rooming houses.
Their claim follows recommendations from the Victorian Coroner, who
this week highlighted some of the appalling conditions in the industry.
It w...as reporting on the deaths of two people in a rooming house fire
three years ago and has now called for stricter registration and
inspection of rooming houses. Cheryl Hall has the story.
MoreRead More
Source: www.abc.net.au
JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, PRESENTER: Local councils say they simply don't have the resources to police the growing problem of sub-standard rooming houses. Their claim follows recommendations from the Victorian Coroner, who this week highlighted some of the appalling conditions in the industry. ...
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria The Wire radio program on the coronial inquest into the Brunswick rooming house deaths
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
‘Unsatisfactory’
locks led to deaths
MEN behind a string of rooming house companies have
been criticised by Coroner Peter White over a fatal fire. Mr White found Leigh
Sinclair and Christopher Giorgi died after fire broke out in their bedroom, one
of six in a rooming house, on Sydney Rd, Brunswick, on October 1, 2006. T...he
property had been leased by George Maatouk on behalf of Dignity Homes Pty Ltd,
owned by b r o t h e r - i n - l a w Mark Vernuccio, from property owners Louis
and Gelsomina Daniele. Mr White found that Mr Maatouk arranged to have door
locks installed in each of the bedrooms. But the locks were ‘‘unsatisfactory’’
because the doors could be opened only with a key. The Coroner found the design
of the locks was ‘‘ultimately a factor in preventing escape’’, referring to the
bedroom where Ms Sinclair and Mr Giorgi died. Mr White’s findings also showed Mr
Maatouk signed a document to recover the bond held against the property after
the fire. Mr White named John Pisani as head of the nowdefunct Northern Suburbs
Accommodation,Read More
locks led to deaths
MEN behind a string of rooming house companies have
been criticised by Coroner Peter White over a fatal fire. Mr White found Leigh
Sinclair and Christopher Giorgi died after fire broke out in their bedroom, one
of six in a rooming house, on Sydney Rd, Brunswick, on October 1, 2006. T...he
property had been leased by George Maatouk on behalf of Dignity Homes Pty Ltd,
owned by b r o t h e r - i n - l a w Mark Vernuccio, from property owners Louis
and Gelsomina Daniele. Mr White found that Mr Maatouk arranged to have door
locks installed in each of the bedrooms. But the locks were ‘‘unsatisfactory’’
because the doors could be opened only with a key. The Coroner found the design
of the locks was ‘‘ultimately a factor in preventing escape’’, referring to the
bedroom where Ms Sinclair and Mr Giorgi died. Mr White’s findings also showed Mr
Maatouk signed a document to recover the bond held against the property after
the fire. Mr White named John Pisani as head of the nowdefunct Northern Suburbs
Accommodation,Read More
Source: leader.newspaperdirect.com
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
Fire
deaths fallout
MORELAND Council believes it has taken steps to ensure
there is no repeat of the bureaucratic bungling found to have contributed to the
deaths of a couple in a 2006 Brunswick rooming house fire. A new urban safety
department, formed in August, brings together the previously separate building
and heal...th units – responsible for administering two of four Acts governing
rooming houses – with planning compliance. Eleven mostly senior council officers
were made redundant during the restructure. Last week, Coroner Peter White found
a lack of communication between the council’s building and health units led the
failure of 2005 investigation into a complaint about fire safety by a resident
of the unregistered Sydney Rd rooming house. It was one of the factors that
contributed to the deaths of Leigh Sinclair, 25, and Christopher Giorgi, 24, in
a fire on October 1, 2006, Mr White said as he handed down inquest findings at
the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday.Read More
deaths fallout
MORELAND Council believes it has taken steps to ensure
there is no repeat of the bureaucratic bungling found to have contributed to the
deaths of a couple in a 2006 Brunswick rooming house fire. A new urban safety
department, formed in August, brings together the previously separate building
and heal...th units – responsible for administering two of four Acts governing
rooming houses – with planning compliance. Eleven mostly senior council officers
were made redundant during the restructure. Last week, Coroner Peter White found
a lack of communication between the council’s building and health units led the
failure of 2005 investigation into a complaint about fire safety by a resident
of the unregistered Sydney Rd rooming house. It was one of the factors that
contributed to the deaths of Leigh Sinclair, 25, and Christopher Giorgi, 24, in
a fire on October 1, 2006, Mr White said as he handed down inquest findings at
the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday.Read More
Source: leader.newspaperdirect.com
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria
‘Just
in it for money’
THE bereaved father of Christopher Giorgi, who died
alongside his girlfriend Leigh Sinclair in a rooming house fire, has spoken of
how grand final celebrations ended in tragedy. Fred Georgi said that, on the
night of September 30, 2006, after drinking at an AFL Grand Final barbecue in
Brunswick, t...he couple decided to stay at Ms Sinclair’s rented room near Barkly
Square, where she worked part-time. The couple usually stayed in the Giorgi’s
home in Fawkner. ‘‘They had a few drinks too many so they did the right thing
and didn’t drive,’’ Mr Georgi told Leader. ‘‘They decided to sleep there the
night . . . and unfortunately never made it.’’ Mr Giorgi described his son, 24
at the time of his death, as a happy young man who loved playing his guitar. As
the coronial inquest into the couple’s deaths wrapped up last Tuesday, the
Sinclair and Giorgi families said they were considering civil action against the
rooming house’s operators. Mr Giorgi said that,while he would like to see the
operators prosecutedRead More
in it for money’
THE bereaved father of Christopher Giorgi, who died
alongside his girlfriend Leigh Sinclair in a rooming house fire, has spoken of
how grand final celebrations ended in tragedy. Fred Georgi said that, on the
night of September 30, 2006, after drinking at an AFL Grand Final barbecue in
Brunswick, t...he couple decided to stay at Ms Sinclair’s rented room near Barkly
Square, where she worked part-time. The couple usually stayed in the Giorgi’s
home in Fawkner. ‘‘They had a few drinks too many so they did the right thing
and didn’t drive,’’ Mr Georgi told Leader. ‘‘They decided to sleep there the
night . . . and unfortunately never made it.’’ Mr Giorgi described his son, 24
at the time of his death, as a happy young man who loved playing his guitar. As
the coronial inquest into the couple’s deaths wrapped up last Tuesday, the
Sinclair and Giorgi families said they were considering civil action against the
rooming house’s operators. Mr Giorgi said that,while he would like to see the
operators prosecutedRead More
Source: leader.newspaperdirect.com
Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria Brimbank City Council officially supports Call this a home? Campaign for safe rooming houses in Victoria.
Source: www.brimbank.vic.gov.au
Your Council| Council Services| Business| Local Laws| Animals
Source: www.news.com.au
A CORONER investigating the deaths of two people in a Melbourne boarding house fire has slammed the management for flouting safety standards and operating behind a "wall of secrecy".
