VULNERABLE residents in boarding houses licensed by the state government have been physically and sexually assaulted by staff and other residents, have died in appalling circumstances, and been denied basic rights, including contact with their families, a scathing report by the NSW Ombudsman reveals.
The report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, is the Ombudsman's fourth in less than 10 years on the failure of the state to protect boarding house residents, in particular those with psychological and intellectual disabilities.
It calls for reforms to improve boarding house standards, monitoring and enforcement, as well as legislative change to protect residents' rights. It also draws attention to past assurances of action from Ageing Disability and Home Care, now part of the Family and Community Services Department, that have been unfulfilled for almost a decade.
''It is of particular concern that many issues we have identified in our most recent investigation and review work are consistent with those we initially identified nine years ago,'' the report says.
The Minister for Disability Services, Andrew Constance, said yesterday he would move quickly to overhaul the Youth and Community Services Act 1973, which governs licensed boarding houses, to strengthen the rights and protection of residents.
''There's been enough consultations,'' he said. ''It's past being put in the too-hard basket.''
An estimated 455 private boarding houses operate in NSW with more than 5000 residents, most of them poor and vulnerable. They pay the proprietor 75 per cent to 100 per cent of their pension. Thirty-one of the boarding houses are licensed by the government to accommodate 687 residents with mental illness and/or intellectual disabilities. They must comply with conditions set out in legislation.
The report, More than board and lodging: the need for boarding house reform, shows the level of care for boarding house residents is inferior to that received by people with similar conditions in housing run or funded by the government.
For example, in 2008, a resident was found 12 hours after he had died in a room strewn with faeces and toilet paper. Three months earlier, hospital staff had raised concerns about his hygiene and nutrition. Around the time of his death, the department had assured the Ombudsman of its initiatives to improve monitoring and compliance at the boarding house. The boarding house eventually closed due to ''unrelated factors''.
Another case involved two residents aged over 80 with schizophrenia, who lived in a licensed boarding house despite having been assessed as needing nursing home care.
Jan Daisley, president of People with Disability Australia, said: "It is abhorrent that people with disability are left to deteriorate and die in these places while all along paying up to 100 per cent of their income to live in this form of housing''.
The Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, noted the good work of some proprietors but said resident welfare should not depend on the ''goodwill and favour of individual proprietors.''
