A non-profit residential care facility that looks after 19 people with enduring mental illness has been slugged with a $23,000 retrospective rates bill by Queanbeyan Council.
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Home in Queanbeyan, which receives no government funding and survives only through ongoing fundraising events, may be forced to shed staff and services if the outstanding bill is not waived or reduced significantly.
Home manager Anne Pratt was shocked when she received the rates notice last week.
“We thought we were safe,” she said. “When I saw it I was shocked and quickly became angry because I knew what it would mean for the community.”
Queanbeyan mayor Tim Overall has told representatives from Home that if the rates bill is not successfully waived through intervention by the Minister for Local Government, community organisations could apply for a 50 per cent rebate under the council’s rates and relief charges policy.
Home operates without financial support from the government.
The property on Crawford Street is leased at the commercial rates and provides a home for 19 residents who cannot live independently or may be at risk of homelessness, 17 of which are pension recipients.
Chairman of Home's board, Michael Mallon, said each year $150,000 was raised through fundraising community events such as their upcoming community movie night at The Q on September 5.
He said summoning even half the money to pay the levied retrospective rates would mean the fundraising event would effectively be a net loss for their small service. “We couldn’t run really any leaner than we are,” he said.
“To take out money to pay backdated bill would be a loss of more than 10 per cent of our budget. We would have to cut part-time staff members and reduce our support services.”
Boettcher Law solicitor Rory Markham has been providing legal advice to assist the non-profit group.
He said council had a legal predicament in the way it could waive rates for commercial tenants but there were discretions that could be applied to non-profits within the Local Government Act.
“Mayor Overall has confirmed that by saying there is a 50 per waiver right,” he said.
“The unfairness is that if these units were to be hired to full private tenants at say $500 a week, there would be the same rate charges notice as if you were giving it to a pensioner in desperate need of homelessness support.”
As 17 of the 19 residents received a pension and would not typically be lumbered with such charges Mr Markham said there was a compelling argument for the rates charges to be waived entirely.
“But if the council feels that they legally can’t reach that point, then there is scope to offset the levied charges thought a grant in recognition of the services that Home offers to pensioners.”
Representatives from Home in Queanbeyan will attend an extraordinary meeting of the Queanbeyan City Council on Wednesday August 13.
Correction: An early version of this story wrongly said Home leased a property from the council.
