ABSTRACT
Residential tenancies law and social housing law are natural domains for legislative action to prevent homelessness, but in Australia, both areas of law have developed in ways that contribute to the deepening problem of homelessness. Residential tenancies laws provide for the ready termination of tenancies by landlords, with little scope for tribunals to decline termination to prevent homelessness. In social housing, decisions about providing housing assistance are guided by changeable policies, rather than statutory obligations, and availability of judicial review is unclear, while judicial review of decisions about taking termination proceedings is even more uncertain. The chapter proposes law reform to align tenancy termination provision with international human rights jurisprudence and increase external scrutiny of social housing decisions.
