There are great tenants out there open your eyes.

Hopefully someone will read this post and it may make a difference to one family applying to rent your house. In my work I regularly assist Sudanese new Australian families with their housing needs as part of my role. Often the parents have three or four children and they can be waiting for public housing for up to four years, so they must turn to the private rental market. Because there are a few children, they don't get snapped up as model tenants, but this is crazy because they are no more likely to damage your property than the guy next door.

I'm shocked by the tactics some landlords are getting away with. One family are trying hard not to make waves and get themselves thrown out and paying $520 per fortnight for a 4 bed house without a working cooker and with intermittant hot water. :mad: They took out a six month lease 6 months ago and understandably won't renew it because they're still cooking on camping gas stoves they bought themselves.

Imagine how hard it is to apply for housing through REA's or through chasing the papers and phoning, when your English language is still very limited.

If you have a place to rent out, consider contacting one of the migrant resource centres and let them know about it. You may even choose to get to know a new Australian family as they settle in and learn English and make Australia their home.

May I also add that the Girrawheen, Balga, Nollamara areas are good areas in Perth that suit Sudanese families because a lot of their community support agencies are in the area.
 
Tizzy if you so highly recommend these people you meet as tennants then l,ve a nice place in Mandurah available to rent.:) Oh and everything works just fine.
cheers yadreamin
 
There are new Sudanese familes here - quite a lot of them. They are refugees sponsored by a christian ministry and I think we have 800 families - or so I read. Tall attractive people and the mother's wear the most gorgeous traditional dress around the streets. Adds a bit of colour to other wise anglosaxon Newcastle.

The only problems we have had are from a few rascist locals having demonstrations. This seems to have died down now.

The boys have started their own basketball team and are making themselves felt on the local scene. Apparently they played street basketball in pretty rough conditions and are finding that they are pretty good. Did I say they were tall? We have one 15 year old Sudanese kid working after school at the local IGA and he must be close to 7 foot tall. Maybe he just looks bigger with that huge smile he always has plastered on his gob :D :D :D

My sister had an old Toyota Corolla that was worth maybe $400. She couldn't be bothered selling it so she called up the migrant people and offered it up to a Sudanese family. Every now and then I see it being driven full of glistening white teeth.

Jenni has helped several at the hospital and they do seem the nicest people.

Thanks for your post Tizzy. You have reminded me of how much time I have on my hands and that I should be doing some volunteer work .....
 
Hi Tizzy,

Agreed it must be hard for them as its all "new" to them and they don’t want to rock the boat, however, you'll always find bad landlords just as you'll find bad tenants.

Girrawheen/Balga/Mirrabooka/Morley etc seems to be the settling ground for many immigrants in the Northern Suburbs (I think it was the Vietnamese before the Somalian’s, Sudanese and people from Sierra Leone, and the Serbians and Croatians before that).
 
Thanks for the offer of Mandurah Yadreamin. This particular family need to stay in the Northern suburbs because the school links are now established and they provide good supports.

There is such a shortage of houses for rent around there. I'd hate to be out competing for rentals at the moment.

In demographic terms if anyone is intending to buy to rent any time soon in Perth, those central Northern suburbs will always provide the most supports to new arrival families and the government will never be able to provide all the housing thats required. I'd guess the situation would be similar in most cities.
 
Simon you are right. Sudanese people are so tall and attractive! A lot of the girls I see look like fashion models and they have those amazing white teeth. I'm sure
when they start to settle in a bit more we will see some great contributions to Australian society.
Right now I love that I can go to the Wanneroo markets and get an international smorgasbord of provisions courtesy of all the new Aussies :D
 
Thanks everyone for such a positive response. It would be wonderful if some of the families I meet could have some of you as their land lords :)
 
My step Dad works for Tafe and his job is finding jobs for the students after graduation. He is currently looking after alot of Sudanese people trying to learn trades and work in Australia but says it's quite difficult to find them work. The employers are only willing to pay the bare minimum.. Sad really

So it's not just housing - give them a go. I really feel for them , it must be so difficult.
 
Simon you are right. Sudanese people are so tall and attractive!
Yes, they're lovely looking people. I live in the Blacktown area in Sydney and this is where the Sudanese population have taken up residency. It's very multicultural at the local shops. But I feel so sorry for a lot of them as I have been told they have basically been dumped with little or no government help.

Our REA told us a story where the landlord received the quarterly water bill which was $600 excess. She went around to talk to the Sudanese family and it turned out they had the taps running full time and thought it was free, that they just had to fill up their glasses etc when they wanted water. Where they come from, they didn't have the luxury of running water and no-one told them how the basics work either. Sad really.

We have just purchased a 4 bed house in the area and I'm expecting a large Sudanese family to take it. Fine with us !!

And I've been meaning to get in touch with the local Sudanese community to see if I can help out at all, even help with English - whatever they need. Maybe this is the kick start I need :)
 
Not quite Sudan, but one of my I/P's is about to be tenanted by a gentleman from Ghana. He is married to an Aussie though.

To me, it makes no difference where someone is born, colour of skin etc. As long as they pay the rent on time and look after the property, it could be a martian for all I care.

Regards
Marty
 
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