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
The ‘irresponsible’ Glebe squatters who started a women’s movement
Mary Ward The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)On March 8, 1974, women’s liberationists took to the streets of Glebe, climbing onto rooftops in an International Women’s Day protest. The next week, some of the group broke into one of the inner-Sydney suburb’s many rundown vacant terraces. They changed the locks and painted two words across the front: women’s refuge. But while the idea of a women’s refuge was radical in itself – the Family Law Actwas more than a year away – the group of women leading the charge to establish one, including author Dr Anne Summers, North Sydney mayor Carole Baker and the late economist Margaret Power, had spent months seeking premises through much less radical means.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-irresponsible-glebe-squa…
# Must read NSW, Security and safety.Worst suburbs to be a renter: rent rises in each NSW suburb revealed
Aidan Devine and Taylor Troeth Daily Telegraph (No paywall)Tenants in parts of Sydney are shelling out $20 more per day than they were at this time last year – just for a roof over their heads. PropTrack data revealed an explosive change in the rental crisis, with rents ballooning in rapid time due to soaring population growth and a further deterioration in vacancies. The figures showed median rents climbed by more than $150 per week in close to 100 city suburbs over the past year. A further 280 of Sydney’s circa 700 suburbs recorded average rises of $80-$150 per week. A $150 per week rise or more effectively meant tenants paying the new rent needed to channel at least $20 more each day into their housing cost than a year ago – or at least $7800 more a year.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/property/worst-suburbs-to-be-a…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.‘Rosehill will become a ghetto’: Councillor accused of ‘cultural snobbery’ over racecourse remarks
Anthony Segaert The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)A plan to convert Rosehill Racecourse into housing would transform the area into a ghetto of 100,000 people, a local councillor has claimed in comments condemned as “malicious”, “cultural snobbery” and showing a “breathtaking lack of understanding”. In a chaotic meeting that featured councillor-drawn maps and frequent yelling, Parramatta Council on Monday night voted against a motion to reject the housing plan and heritage list the racetrack, on the same day the Australian Turf Club’s immediate past president said the proposal had little chance of succeeding.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rosehill-will-become-a-ghett…
# Hot topic NSW, .Auckland landlord slapped with a restraining order and damages of $65,000
Jonathan Killick 9 News (No paywall)The Tenancy Tribunal has ordered a west Auckland landlord to pay a total of $NZ69,563 ($AU65,125.95) for "widespread and egregious" breaches. Shirley Anne Sharp ran a lodge at 107 Blockhouse Bay that consisted of a converted family home and several unconsented cabins. The tribunal found it wasn't "fit for humans". The tribunal heard that an outdoor toilet didn't have a door. A tenant had put up a curtain for privacy, but it "was not effective if windy". Adjudicator Rex Woodhouse called that "humiliating".
https://www.nine.com.au/property/news/auckland-landlord-slapped-…
# Hot topic International, Security and safety.The free market’s brilliant frontman
John Edwards Inside Story (No paywall)Echoing Karl Marx’s dictum, the great Chicago economist George Stigler once said of his friend and colleague Milton Friedman that while Stigler only wanted to understand the world, Friedman wanted to change it. His big theory was that the rate of inflation — or more broadly nominal income — is always related to the rate of growth of the money supply. It was a claim with important implications. For Friedman, it meant a market economy was inherently stable except for variations in the money supply.
https://insidestory.org.au/the-free-markets-brilliant-frontman/
# Hot topic International, .‘The police harassed me almost every day’: Woman tells of terrifying torment of sleeping rough
Maya Oppenheim The Independent (No paywall)Alice* was homeless on and off from the age of 16 until her forties. From the two months she spent sleeping in a derelict building to the five months spent sheltering in a tent, the now 54-year-old deliberately sought out hidden spots to remain safe when she was sleeping rough. Of course, she is not alone; this is something many women on the streets do to protect themselves from sexual violence, harassment and other dangers. However, women sleeping rough could soon find themselves criminalised for simply trying to stay safe – with leading housing charities telling The Independent they fear measures criminalising homelessness in the Criminal Justice Bill could hit women hardest.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/homeless-woman-c…
# Must read International, Security and safety.Treasury says it wants 'landlords to quit sector'
Nigel Lewis Landlord Zone (No paywall)The Government wants more private landlords to sell their properties and exit the market, commentary within Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Statement briefing document has revealed. Buried within the Treasury background notes published yesterday after the Chancellor’s speech in parliament it explains why the reduction in the higher rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for residential property disposals has been cut from 28% to 24%. While some landlords might assume the reduction is a small peace offering to landlords who have faced huge increases in the tax they pay each year following the phased withdrawal of mortgage interest relief, the document reveals the Treasury instead wants so to see more landlords selling their properties.
https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/treasury-reveals-it-wants-la…
# Hot topic International, .Accommodating ‘generation rent’: Unsettling dominant discourses on rental housing reform in Catalonia and Spain
Lorenzo Vidal, Javier Gil, and Miguel A Martínez Urban Studies (No paywall)In contemporary urban areas, a growing 'generation rent' is finding shelter in expensive and precarious private rental housing. Tenant organisations and legislative initiatives have been pushing to improve housing conditions for renters, yet have been met with strong resistance. Intense policy and academic debates have ensued. Such discussions have acquired particular salience in Catalonia and Spain, where in recent years tenant rights and protections have expanded in uneven and limited ways, yet have faced significant legal reversals and political backlash.
https://www.urbanstudiesonline.com/resources/resource/accommodat…
# Hot topic International, Rent.