BRIMBANK Council is calling on the state government to help improve the standard of rooming houses following a large a rise in complaints over the past 12 months.
The government has failed to commit to introducing a central registry of rooming house operators, which welfare organisations and the council say is necessary to improve the standards.
Brimbank’s executive manager of regulation and compliance, Josie Scarfo, said the council had had a significant increase in the number of complaints about rooming houses over the past two years.
“This may be the result of increased awareness or increased reporting from other government agencies such as Consumer Affairs Victoria to the council to investigate,” she said.
As reported by the Weekly, some of the worst conditions inspectors have seen in Brimbank included a mother and three children living in a single bedroom, people cooking and living in their bedrooms, and living areas being converted into bedrooms, which were then rented to tenants.
There are 25 rooming houses registered with Brimbank Council. There were 46 complaints between February 2011 and February this year, and about 120 complaints over the past three years.
The council has inspected 46 premises in the past 12 months.
Compliance notices have been issued to 21 premises for the illegal change of use to a rooming house.
A Brimbank outreach nurse, who did not want to be named, said people were paying up to $200 a week to live in “Third World” conditions.
Government spokeswoman Emily Broadbent said it continued to investigate the most-effective way to deliver a register of rooming house premises and operators.
