PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

It is Mangrove’s policy that in matters relating to applicants and tenants, privacy and confidentiality will be respected and upheld. This means:

• All application forms are held in a confidential file and no information will be divulged to any third party without the permission of the applicant.
• All interviews will be held in private.
• All information relating to tenants will be kept in an individual file and no information will be divulged to a third party without the permission of the tenant.
• Access to tenant files will be restricted to Mangrove staff only, for tenancy purposes, except when lawfully required by government departments which have the legal right to information, e.g. the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink, or for audit requirements.
• In any form of reporting to the Management Committee, only information relative to data, or of a general nature will be supplied and tenants’ names, addresses and personal information about them will not be given except in a case where Management Committee are involved, such as an Appeals Committee.
• Information, including mailing lists requested by other housing, referral or support organisations, will only be supplied with the consent of tenants. However, data information may be openly shared.
• Tenants will have open access to any information kept by Mangrove about them. Such information will be available by arrangement with the Housing Manager, at a mutually convenient time and place.
• Mangrove is bound, in particular circumstances, to ensure certain information is available to lawful authorities. Such information will be restricted to any suspected criminal activity, including the supply or selling of illicit drugs, sexual criminality and child abuse, violence perpetrated against a tenant, any danger to a tenant’s life, or harassment of a tenant.
• In the case of a tenant being dangerously ill or in danger of his/her life or being the subject of an emergency situation, Mangrove will contact the person named by the tenant on the application form, or take such steps as deemed necessary for safety.
• From time to time, staff will need to discuss tenants, and in these circumstances, staff will be circumspect and respectful of tenants in their absence, identifying tenants not by name but by using an alias such as “tenant A”. Information exchanged by staff will be on a need to know basis only.