Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
'Shouses' are surging in popularity. But are they the answer to skyrocketing building costs?
Emily MacPherson 9 News (No paywall)When Jill Crocket's husband, Steve, asked her what kind of house they should build on their regional NSW property, she told him she wasn't too fussed about what form it would take. "I made the mistake of saying I didn't care if I even live in a shed - well, Steve ran with that," Jill said with a laugh. What Steve ended up building on their Nemingha farm, in the state's north-east, was a "shouse" - or a shed house. A shouse has the steel exterior of a shed, but with all the comforts of a home on the inside. Shouses have grown in popularity in recent years as a potentially cheaper way to build a unique and appealing home amid soaring construction costs. Social media is littered with groups where Australians show off their shouses, such as the popular Facebook page "Shed Life Australia", which now boasts around 150,000 followers.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/shouses-are-surging-in-popular…
# Hot topic NSW, .Greater housing density is coming to a Sydney suburb near you. Here’s what you need to know
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)The NSW government has formally commenced its Transport Oriented Development Program, a major prong in its plan to increase housing supply in NSW and help build 377,000 new homes by 2029. From May 13, development applications can be lodged under the new policy at the first 18 train or metro stations. The new planning controls allow apartment blocks of up to six storeys (technically 22 metres, or 24 metres if there are shops on the ground floor) within 400 metres of the station. It marks the start of a program that – at this stage – will expand to 37 train and metro stations by June 2025. There are also another eight “accelerated precincts”, mostly around current or future metro stations, that are being master-planned by the government for significantly more density.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/greater-housing-density-is-c…
# Hot topic NSW, .Urgent call for basic safety standards to be introduced for temporary housing for homeless
Erin Somerville ABC (No paywall)After a close call with a fire in their motel room, a couple experiencing homelessness says some short-term accommodation sites are failing to meet basic safety expectations, putting lives at risk. When Edward Richards and his partner, Jessica Hall, found themselves homeless after leaving their social housing complex in Tasmania, they travelled north for a fresh start. They had hoped an Albury motel they accessed through a NSW government-supported service for the homeless would be a safe place to stay until they got back on their feet. Instead, they said, they were shocked to find the site did not have a working smoke alarm when a fire broke out.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-26/homeless-people-fear-for-…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Security and safety.International students not to blame for rental crunch
Rachel Hayter ABC (No paywall)AUDIO: International students are not to blame for the housing crisis, according to new research from the Property Council. They've commissioned a report, which has found the rental crunch is being driven by a rise in solo-person households and second bedrooms being converted into home offices.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/international-students…
# Must read, Hot topic, Audio Australia, Rent.Landlords charging Centrepay transaction fees to vulnerable tenants against scheme policy
Christopher Knaus and Lorena Allam The Guardian (No paywall)Landlords are wrongly making vulnerable tenants cover the costs of administering the government-run Centrepay debit system, in one case passing it on to a blind disability pensioner. A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed multiple failings with Centrepay, a system allowing businesses early access to welfare payments, prior to money hitting a welfare recipient’s bank account. The system, designed to ensure recipients budget for essentials such as electricity and rent, has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars wrongly diverted from vulnerable Australians to a major energy company, AGL, and used to help prop up a disgraced Christian rehabilitation centre practising gay conversion practices and forced baptisms.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/19/centrepay…
# Must read Australia, Discrimination, Rent.Residents challenge plans to demolish Melbourne public housing towers
Lyndal Rowlands Al Jazeera (No paywall)Melbourne, Australia – The residents of dozens of public housing towers in the southern Australian city of Melbourne heard the state government was planning to demolish their homes on the news. “Everyone found out from the TV, from the news, with the rest of Victoria,” Sara*, a resident of the first group of towers to be knocked down, told Al Jazeera. Sara’s home, among a cluster of 14-storey towers in the inner-city suburbs of Flemington, North Melbourne and Carlton, will be one of the first to go after the Victorian government last year announced its plan to demolish all 44 of the state’s remaining public housing towers. Built under public housing schemes in the 1960s, the blocks are located in parts of the city closely eyed by property developers as Melbourne’s house prices continue to soar.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/23/residents-question-…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.‘It’s not the 19th century’: tenants in new social housing block in Victoria say they go weeks without flushing toilets
Cait Kelly and Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants in one of Victoria’s newest community housing blocks say they have gone weeks without being able to flush their toilets and months without being able to get a signal for TV, while their concerns over cracks in the building have gone unaddressed. The $140m development in Dunlop Avenue in Ascot Value is the first development to open from the government’s Public Housing Renewal Program – now known as the Big Housing Build – and was heralded as the “most advanced” social housing project in the state when it was completed in March last year. The estate was previously public housing, managed directly by the Victorian government. Since its redevelopment, the 200-dwelling complex offers only community housing managed by third-party not-for-profit provider Evolve and rent-controlled affordable housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/27/its-not-t…
# Must read Australia, Security and safety, Utilities electricity water gas.‘It’s not the 19th century’: tenants in new social housing block in Victoria say they go weeks without flushing toilets
Cait Kelly and Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants in one of Victoria’s newest community housing blocks say they have gone weeks without being able to flush their toilets and months without being able to get a signal for TV, while their concerns over cracks in the building have gone unaddressed. The $140m development in Dunlop Avenue in Ascot Value is the first development to open from the government’s Public Housing Renewal Program – now known as the Big Housing Build – and was heralded as the “most advanced” social housing project in the state when it was completed in March last year. The estate was previously public housing, managed directly by the Victorian government. Since its redevelopment, the 200-dwelling complex offers only community housing managed by third-party not-for-profit provider Evolve and rent-controlled affordable housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/27/its-not-t…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Security and safety, Utilities electricity water gas.