Common Equity Rental Co-ops (CERCs) and Community Managed Co-ops (CMCs) are demanding a moratorium by Common Equity Housing Limited. to any July (now end of September thanks to Victorian State Government) rent increases until the following year

The new rent model was completed without proper consultation of CERC and CMC members/shareholders.

CEHL are no longer acknowledging the massive amounts of work completed and expected, meetings held, or maintenance done, to run our co-op businesses. The Members/Shareholders of our co-ops have entered the program under the provisions of cheaper rent, for all the work done by us, and we are low/medium income earners.  
It is completely unfair to change these rules without complete transparency and consultations, this was not done! Some members have done 20 or 30 years or work for their co-ops and to have this happen is totally unethical and hurtful.

In our current economic climate and the health (and Mental Health) impacts felt by members now, continuing ahead with new rent models would be unconscionable and against the spirit of co-operatives.

Common Equity Housing Limited’s program is meant to provide affordable housing to all.

As the CEHL website states:

“CEHL actively promotes the value of co-operatives and the vital role co-operative models can play as part of the SOLUTION to Victoria’s HOUSING AFFORDIBILITY CRISIS”

“CEHL is a registered Housing Association, a provider and developer of AFFORDABLE HOUSING”

“Our housing program is an alternative to private rental or home ownership. The program enables people to work together to meet their housing needs”

“We partner with member co-operatives to deliver an effective, sustainable co-operative housing program”

As the CHIA VIC (Community Housing Industry Association Victoria) website states:

In the CERC model (specific to CEHL), the housing is managed by the Co-operative, and the members undertake SIGNIFICANT responsibilities for carrying out of all tasks associated with running a housing co-operative:eg. Financial Administration, Collecting Rents, Arranging home maintenance, selecting new members, keeping all associated records.  All Members assist with these day-to-day tasks, and benefit through reduced costs, local control and self management.

Unfortunately the above statements are now untrue.

Taking into account the unique situation in CERCs & CMCs of being both the landlord and tenant, and many other unique circumstances, these maximum rent increases are excessive.

These increases mean that housing co-operatives and members will be doing for FREE, what real-estate agents do (and much more) for a significant charge, as well as home improvement from their own pockets, whilst paying market rent.  As well as doing massive amounts of work to manage the business of our individual co-operatives.

However CEHL will still continue to charge all CERCs and CMCs quite significantly, for any of the work done by CEHL. 

We want to ensure families aren't being split apart by the potential for dependants to be paying twice the rent as their parents/carers. The new Rent model put into place has been disastrous and needs to be revised for housing co-ops to be viable in the future.  The very real possibility of us all having to leave our co-ops is quite upsetting, some CERCs have been in operation for close to 30 years and still have founding members, and members of 15+ years. We are all family, not a business.

CEHL increased maximum rents by a capped amount of $50 for the 2019/2020 financial year, and plans to uncap and increase maximum rents again in the 2020/2021 financial year.

An example: some members will be paying $265 p/w currently, but as of 1 July 2020 this will increase from anywhere up to $650 p/w

This means many co-op members will experience yet another huge increase to their weekly rent payable.

We have heard multiple accounts of dependants having to leave their family home. This is because of the way the new rent model works. A parent on a government payment will be required to pay 25% (sometimes more) of their income and (100% of rent assistance) and so will their dependants. This means that while the parent will be paying around $115 per week of the weekly $450 rent, a dependant working fulltime (~$48,000 p.a) paying 25% of their gross weekly income would see them paying around $230 per week for a room in a house that isn't usually modern or well maintained. 

These rent increases are causing dependants to move out of home earlier, as they can get a room for a lot less money elsewhere. Families being split up and forced to make tough decisions as their co-op membership is having a negative economic impact on their children. Family’s should not be having to split up to be able to make the rent affordable.

This decision is also counter intuitive for CEHL and co-ops -instead of two people paying rent you have just one.

Keeping families together should be a Community concern and dependents moving out now further isolates parents. Many co-op members have discussed the loneliness that arises from having their children forced to leave home early. Now more than ever the mental health and wellbeing of our community is at risk, we must not separate families. We must not manufacture additional stress.

Many workers and especially casual workers are experiencing heavy cuts to their income, work insecurity and the effects of a depressed economy.  We are operating in a new and unknown environment with new challenges and compassion is needed now more than ever.

The Victorian Government has issued a state of emergency and urging Landlords and agents to be compassionate with tenants, even bringing in a 6 month moratorium on evictions and although the relationship between co-ops and CEHL is more complex, the sentiment is the same. 

We demand Common Equity Housing Limited halts the July (now end of September) rent increases immediately and open discussions with ALL CMCs and CERCs together.

We request that increases be postponed until next year when CEHL can meet with CMCs and CERCs to properly discuss the proposed changes to the new Rent Model so that we may reach an agreement we are all comfortable with. We ask for a process that more closely represents the spirit of co-operation. It is against the spirit of community housing to increase rates and the work done by Co-op members needs to be valued within the program as it has done for the past 30+ years. (Since 1989) With founding members and members of 20+ years housed within these Co-ops, and have volunteered their time for the entirety.