The Northern NSW Aboriginal Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service (NATAAS) provides advice and advocacy to Aboriginal clients who have issues with their tenancy whether in social, community, or private housing. We provide telephone advice, letters of support, attend the Tribunal if you require support, and mediation where necessary with housing providers on your behalf. We can assist with Housing Appeals Committee applications, and follow up on your repairs issues. We can help find services who can assist you if you require support on other issues, and also attend meetings between you and your landlord (including Housing NSW), and negotiate with landlords if required. NATAAS can provide face-to-face outreach services (we will come to you), subject to availability. We also provide Community Education and Duty Advocacy.
Our services are available to Aboriginal renters in the areas from Wyong all up to Tweed Heads, then northwest to Boggabilla and down to Narrabri, and down to Muswellbrook.
If you are in the Newcastle area, please call the Newcastle office on 4967 7756.
This is a specialist Aboriginal Service. Non-Aboriginal tenants please contact your local tenants' service.
We’ve been fighting for decades to strengthen renters' rights by changing law in NSW. Now it's finally happening. The reforms cap rent increases at once yearly, will end no-grounds evictions and make it easier to have pets in your home. Find out more...
If you rent part of a house or unit from another tenant, it is very important that you have a separate written agreement with your head-tenant. Without a written agreement, you will not have the…
The Tenants' Union was invited to comment on FACS Housing’s Tenancy Bonds for Public Housing Policy and Operational Framework (Draft for consultation). We raised four objections.
The public housing tenants at Todd and Bent Street have been working hard to create a vibrant community and a luscious community garden. Thanks to their love and care, a permaculture garden now…
Julie Foreman, Tenants' Union of NSW Executive Officer reflects on the TU's 40 years of working for tenants rights and housing justice. She introduces a compilation of stories which…
At the launch of the Tenants' Union 40th anniversary celebrations at the Northcott estate in Surry Hills in February 2016, we asked the three Members of Parliament who attended about their…
Carol Carter is an Aboriginal woman living in public housing in Bankstown in Sydney. In September 2014, Carol received a letter from the Department of Housing in relation to relocating her to…
My family and I had been living in our place for three years. It wasn’t a a bad property – there’s a nice view over Budgewoi Lake (although the lake can get a bit smelly!). Then there was a…
Firstly, to introduce us, I am Carol (on the left in the picture) and my sister is Vivian (on the right). We are social housing residents living in Riverwood and have lived here since 1984.…
In 1990 I bought a manufactured home in a residential park (now called a ‘residential community’). I knew there was an element of risk in using my meagre retirement funds to become the owner of…
Sharon Callaghan, former Tenant Advocate in the Illawarra, reflects on the fight for tenants' rights in the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1980s Sharon was a community worker at the…
Home means security for me – this is where I feel safe. My home is like my castle, even though it's one room at the back of my landlord's house. I also like to go out, but I value my…
Charmaine Jones, social housing tenant and Tenants' Union Treasurer, reflects on her involvement with the TU and the changes in the sphere of social housing.