No Place Like Home: Addressing Exploitation of International Students in Sydney’S Housing Market (Report, July 2019)
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NO PLACE LIKE HOME Addressing Exploitation of International Students in Sydney’s Housing Market UNSW Human Rights Clinic I July 2019 Human Rights Clinic UNSW Law © UNSW Human Rights Clinic 2019. All material in this report is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. Design and layout Hard Working Farmboys Cover image istockphoto Contents About the Authors ..............................................................................................................................5 Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................................6 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................7 I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................13 II. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ LIVING ARRANGEMENTS AND LEGAL RIGHTS IN SYDNEY.......................16 A. Types of Accommodation and Living Arrangements .......................................................................16 B. International Students’ Housing Rights . .19 1. International Law 2. NSW Tenancy Law 3. Other Areas of NSW and Commonwealth Law Consumer Law Contract Law Discrimination Law III. HOUSING PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS..............................................24 A. Rental Bonds...........................................................................................................................25 1. Withholding of Bond 2. Excessive Bonds B. Misrepresentation, Deceptive Conduct and Scams..........................................................................26 1. Property Does Not Exist 2. Property Does Not Match Description 3. Inaccurate Landlord Details 4. Excessive Rent Increases and Charges 5. Landlord Phoenixing C. Written Agreements .................................................................................................................29 1. Lack of Written Agreements 2. Unfair Terms D. Unfair Evictions........................................................................................................................31 E. Poor Living Conditions ..............................................................................................................32 1. Overcrowding 2. Unsafe Properties 3. Uninhabitable Properties F. Bullying, Harassment and Assault ................................................................................................34 G. Discrimination ............................................................................................36 3 IV. FACTORS PREVENTING STUDENTS FROM SECURING ADEQUATE HOUSING.......................................37 A. Limited Availability of Affordable Housing in the Sydney Rental Market and Inaccessibility of Student-Specific Housing ..............................................................................37 B. International Students’ Financial Constraints ..................................................................................38 1. Cost of Living and Tuition 2. Cost of Public Transport 3. Employment Restrictions C. Inaccessibility of the Formal Rental Market to International Students ..................................................43 D. International Students Lack Essential Information Pre-Departure and When in Australia to Secure Decent Accommodation ................................................................44 1. Many Students Find Accommodation Prior to Arrival in Australia, or through Social Media and Informal Channels 2. International Students Lack Knowledge of the Sydney Housing Market and their Legal Rights E. International Students Cannot Access Institutions and Assistance to Enforce Rights and Resolve Problems .........................................................................47 1. International Students Do Not Know How to Access Assistance and Availability of Assistance is Limited 2. Culture and Language Barriers 3. Further Challenges to Pursuing Remedies through NCAT 4. International Students’ Time Constraints 5. Inadequate Penalties and Ineffective Enforcement of Laws by Government V. IMPACT OF INSECURE HOUSING ON SYDNEY’S INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS .....................................53 A. Health Impact .........................................................................................................................53 B. Academic Impact.....................................................................................................................54 C. Financial Impact ......................................................................................................................54 VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................................56 A. Increase Access to Adequate Housing . 56 B. Improve Access to Information and Tenancy Services ......................................................................57 C. Establish Accountability of Unscrupulous Accommodation Providers and Enable International Students to Identify Quality Providers .........................................................58 D. Strengthen Rights and Access to Justice .......................................................................................60 GLOSSARY OF COMMONLY USED TERMS ...........................................................................................62 4 About the Authors The UNSW Human Rights Clinic works to systemically advance the rights of temporary migrants and asylum seekers in Asia and Australia. Under intensive faculty supervision, clinic students work as legal advisers and advocates with individual clients, NGOs, governments and intergovernmental institutions globally and domestically. Bridging theory and practice, students learn the skills and responsibilities of human rights lawyering. For further information on the clinic and its publications, see www.law.unsw.edu.au/current-students/law-action/clinics/human-rights-clinic. Bassina Farbenblum is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney. She is Director of the UNSW Human Rights Clinic and Co-Director of the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative. Maria Nawaz is a Lecturer/Human Rights Clinic Supervisor in the Faculty of Law, UNSW Sydney. Chelsea Barton, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Jonathan Djasmeini, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Hannah Farrell, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Philippa Meikle, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Laura Melrose, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Jessica Ortner, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Mayuri Santhukumar, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law Wenshuo (Phoebe) Wang, Student, UNSW Human Rights Clinic, UNSW Law This report should be cited as: UNSW Human Rights Clinic, No Place Like Home: Addressing Exploitation of International Students in Sydney’s Housing Market (Report, July 2019). Please note: wherever an asterisk (*) appears in a quote or case study, the name has been changed to protect student and stakeholder confidentiality. Each case study was provided by a legal or tenancy advice service, based on a real client’s experience. 5 Acknowledgments We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this report was researched and written, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. The authors are grateful for the advice, information and guidance generously provided by members of the report’s Stakeholder Advisory Group, Dianne Anagnos, Quinten Buchan, Chiemi Haginoya, Linda Lombardi, David Loonam, David Maloney, Leo Patterson-Ross and Sean Stimson. The authors also thank law academics Cathy Sherry, Brendan Edgeworth, and Laurie Berg for feedback on earlier drafts. We greatly appreciate the contributions of all stakeholders who participated in individual interviews for this report. We sincerely thank each international student who gave their time to participate in a focus group and shared their experiences with us. We hope that this report contributes to improving housing in Sydney for international students. We acknowledge the capable editing assistance provided by Hannah Jover and Annabel Green, UNSW Human Rights Clinic students. We also appreciate the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative’s support for the publication of this report. Finally, we acknowledge the generous financial and other support provided by the UNSW Law Faculty for this report and its continuing support for the UNSW Human Rights Clinic. 6 Executive Summary In 2018, there were a record 548,000 international students at universities, vocational colleges, English colleges and schools in Australia -- nearly double the number in 2013.1 Education providers, government agencies and others are concerned about unscrupulous conduct by landlords and others that leave many international students living in poor housing conditions. These conditions seriously undermine international students’ physical, emotional and financial wellbeing, and in many cases, their basic human right to adequate housing.2 Sydney (and other major Australian cities) has very limited dedicated student accommodation on campus or within commercial Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA). As a result, most international students in Sydney rely on private rentals. Cost and other barriers render the formal