Government changes from March 2021 – how they affect you

Victoria’s rental laws are changing

Renting laws are changing to be safer and fairer for people. Many changes are already implemented. From 29 March 2021, the last of the changes come into place.

The new rental laws refer to landlords as rental providers, tenants as renters, tenancy agreements as rental agreements, and rooming house owners as rooming house operators.

Some of the changes to make renting better are discrimination laws, minimum standards for heating and fairer rules about keeping pets. In total, there are 132 reforms.

More information about this and the other reforms to Victoria’s rental laws is available from Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Changes to government support for renters

There will be two big changes to government support for renters in March:

On 28 March 2021, the eviction moratorium that has been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year is planned to come to an end.
On 31 March 2021, the COVID-19 supplement for income support payment is also planned to come to an end.

We understand that these changes may have an impact on your financial status. If you are facing challenges, do not hesitate to contact your Property and Tenancy manager by calling: 1300 428 364.

It is important that you continue to pay your rent on time. If you need help with managing your money, we have a list of organisations that can help.

Feedback to us -
what do you think?

New community engagement strategy

Hello, I’m Adele, the new Community Engagement Lead.

I am creating a new community engagement strategy and want your input.

Below are our ideas to create stronger communities and to deliver better services: how do these ideas sound to you? Tap the button below to use our feedback form.

We really value your feedback.

Community feedback closes Sunday 21 March 2021.

1. Include your voices in more decision making.

We want to create a statewide Tenant Reference Group – made up of people like you. This involves regular meetings of people who live in HHS properties to discuss our policies and systems.

2. Better connect people with the places they live in.

We want to work with you on projects to improve community spaces in your neighbourhoods, otherwise known as placemaking.

3. Share more about your success, strengths and achievements.

We want to share your diverse voices and lived experiences by telling your stories.

4. Strengthen partnerships in your communities.

We want to connect our community to organisations that best serve your needs.

We also want your feedback about our services overall

We want to ask our renters who live in long-term and transitional housing for their feedback on our services.

The survey helps us understand where we can improve our services. We’ll use your feedback to inform how we do things in the future and to see what we are doing well and what can be improved on.

Our Satisfaction Survey will be sent to you soon. The survey is an online form and takes about 10 minutes to complete. All answers are confidential.

If you complete the survey you can go in the running to win one of five $50 Gift Vouchers. We will provide you a summary of the results in due course.

Welcome to our new CEO

We’d like to extend a warm welcome and introduce you to our new CEO, Andrew Cairns.

Andrew is a committed CEO with experience in the not-for-profit, profit-for-purpose, and commercial sectors. He has held senior management roles with several multinational companies, including more than 19 years with the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Group and almost five years as CEO of Community Sector Banking.

Andrew is looking forward to delivering outcomes for our clients and tenants across Victoria.

Power savings for low-income Victorian households

The Victorian government is reducing the cost of energy for Victorians doing it tough, with a one-off $250 payment to help with their energy bills.

The bonus is available for the next 12 months to any households with a Victorian electricity account who either:

hold a pensioner concession card
receive JobSeeker, Austudy, Abstudy or Youth Allowance

The bonus is available through the Victorian Energy Compare website: www.compare.energy.vic.gov.au or
by calling: 1800 000 832.

Stay informed about the COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19 vaccinations have started in Australia. The first people to receive the vaccines will be priority groups who are at a higher risk of COVID-19.

To tell people when they can get the vaccine, the Government has developed the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility checker. To access this tool and for more information visit the Australian Governments website here: www.health.gov.au

Information about COVID-19 vaccines for people with disability is available here: www.health.gov.au/information-for-people-with-disability

Heroes of Haven; Home, Safe

Not all heroes wear capes. We’ve been hearing some amazing stories about neighbours helping neighbours and we’d love to share those stories.

Instead of our Good Neighbour Awards, this year we will share stories about people in our communities.

We want to hear stories about you or your HHS neighbours including:

Ways you have supported each other.
Any goals, achievements or milestones.
Simple acts of kindness and courage.

Tell us about the stories in your neighbourhood by using this link. If your story is published, we have a $50 gift card for the hero in the story.

Local hero shares a Christmas lunch.

Our first hero for this year is Kim.

Kim knows better than most people the power of food to bring people together. Many people spend Christmas alone and last year with restrictions even more people were unable to visit families. Kim had the idea to host a lunch with neighbours in her apartment buildings hallway!

There was a big spread of food to share and there were lots of smile. Sharing a meal can help make us happier people!

“I love cooking for other people. The lunch was lovely, even if the space was a bit small! I would have liked to invite even more people. We got to know our neighbours better.

- Kim (HHS Tenant)

“The Neighbour Christmas lunch was great. Kim does a lot for our community. We are thankful to have Kim as a neighbour. Kim is always trying to cheer people and does other kind things like give out Birthday cards.”

- Linton (Kim's neighbour, HHS Tenant)