Experiences with tenant participation

Lynne Randall Birkbeck

Lynne's story

My name is Lynne Randall Birkbeck and as both the President of North Moreton Regional Tenants Association Inc and a Murri I was not especially worried about my group's ability to deliver the tenant participation program to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants in our regional area when the Department of Housing introduced one social housing system recently.

I have been President of our group for about nine years now and our Management Committee has always consisted mostly of members who were either Murri themselves or have a close association with Murri people. So when we recently attended cultural awareness training provided by the department, there was nothing much new to our group.

My involvement with the group has provided me with many other training opportunities and I've also developed friendships with people who are now family to me. My involvement has also given me an insight now into how things work at an area office level and provided me with an opportunity to have input at a policy making level. It has also given me a new respect for the area office staff and the job they have to do and I hope that I will be involved for many years to come.

Lorraine's story

Lorraine Bonnyman

I am of Aboriginal ancestry and have many contacts within the Aboriginal community. I have been a public housing tenant for the past 12 years and for the greater majority of those years, I have been dedicated to understanding and helping to resolve issues of public housing tenants in the rural and remote areas of South West Queensland.

I became a public housing tenant when my personal circumstances altered and I was in need of low cost housing where I could make a home for my grandson.

I had only been a tenant for a short while when I received an invitation to attend a barbecue in the local park, with other tenants, with a view of forming a local tenant group. We did form a group and from there I assisted with the establishment of a regional group based in Toowoomba but serving the southwest Queensland area.

To enable me to understand and share this knowledge about how tenants could participate within the housing system and to learn more about how such systems worked, I soon realised that my education skills needed to be updated. I gained advice from Binalong Binang, which is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning unit based at TAFE in Toowoomba and received support to return to school to finish my education. The teachers at the unit encouraged me not only to complete my secondary education but also to apply to attend university as a mature aged student. I have completed a diploma in Housing Policy, Research and Management through the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and I'm currently enrolled at the University of Southern Queensland, completing a Bachelor of General Studies.

I am treasurer of the South West Queensland Tenants Association Inc (SWQTA). SWQTA is a regional tenant group for public housing tenants, and with the new changes occurring in housing we will now also be representing the interests of Indigenous and community housing tenants. Public housing is targeted to those with high needs. Within my role as a volunteer for SWQTA I have been able to consider the interests of all tenants, including those with disabilities or mental health issues, and advocate on their behalf.

As the current secretary for the Queensland Public Tenants Association Inc (QPTA), I am also involved at a statewide level with issues confronting public housing tenants. QPTA is the peak body for public housing tenants in Queensland. There are approximately 170 local tenant groups in Queensland, which link with 16 regional tenant groups.

All of this would not have been possible if I had not attended that first meeting in the park.