The reason why I got interested in this issue is not because I'm interested in having a boarding house, but that
1) I feel there is a lack of a clear definition of a boarding house and felt quite pestered by the council inspectors when they were investigating my house.
2) Many house owners sense that there is racial discrimination and hostility in the community.
In my case, I’ve never used my house as a boarding house. I am a young and single, so I recruited a few friends & flatmates to help cover the cost of my mortgage. That’s 1 person per room, and only 3-4 people living there. Yet the council tried to treat my house like a boarding house until I show them a single tenancy agreement for all the people living in the house, clearly stating on the agreement that it is a shared house. So the house owners really need to know what is the definition of a boarding house, especially the confused ones who don’t speak English, and how they can continue renting out their houses without being accused of running a boarding house.
Many house owners are feeling confused/agitated and sense racial discrimination, even if that might not be the case, ie. maybe the MARS people are just not happy with overcrowded houses and have nothing against Asians, although that recent SMH article really does sound pretty discriminating and triggered off quite a lot of anger, and Alan Patrick, the leader of MARS, made a lot of very generalised degrading statements against the house owners. Nevertheless, the house owners SENSE racial discrimination, so this issue needs to be addressed so the house owners can calm down.
The issue of housing shortage in this region still needs to be addressed.
The above was the statement me & some house owners of the City of Ryde made to Channel 10 News. It will be aired on the 7pm project program on Mon 18/4/11.
For more info about that apalling SMH article, which generalised Asian house owners as greedy pests of the community running a blackmarket and overseas Chinese students as victims whose lives are so poor they work as sex workers, please see:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/culdesac-of-broken-dreams-20110320-1c23o.html
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