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
Shocking sight in affluent Sydney suburb
Yahoo News (No paywall)A new homelessness encampment, known by inhabitants as “Wayside After Hours,” has sprung up in one of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs. Tucked underneath the awnings of the empty Metro Minerva Theatre Building in Potts Point is a burgeoning camp for the area’s rough sleepers, with up to eight people taking shelter there every night. The makeshift Orwell St home boasts two mattresses, a large tent for storage and about 20 sleeping bags, which are lent to fellow rough sleepers as needed.
Propped on a wall is a framed print which reads: “Home is where the heart is”.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-story-behind-shock-pictu…
# Must read NSW, Security and safety.Philip has been waiting 10 years for strata to fix a leak in his apartment
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)For a decade Philip Baigent endured water pooling on his balcony and leaking into his flat, warping the floorboards and causing mould. He is now living in a short-term rental apartment in Ramsgate, 20 kilometres from his home in Surry Hills, waiting for the strata committee to fix the problem.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/philip-has-been-waiting-10-y…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs, Strata.Sydney at risk of being like San Francisco, Mookhey warns
Jordan Baker The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Treasurer Daniel Mookhey warns a failure to act swiftly on housing affordability will lead Sydney down the path of San Francisco, where middle-class workers with suits and iPhones are queuing for food and living in homeless shelters. In a rare foray into housing policy, Mookhey said the city had a five- to 10-year window to avert a landed gentry situation, in which only those with family money could afford property and education was no longer an equaliser.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-at-risk-of-being-like…
# Hot topic NSW, .‘This is going to be devastating’: North shore begins its resistance to housing policy
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)North shore residents and representatives have launched a campaign of resistance against the state government’s plans to increase housing density, accusing Premier Chris Minns of “trying to cause trouble” by rushing through changes. At a special community meeting on Wednesday night, senior Ku-ring-gai Council officers showed residents photographs of apartment blocks in Meadowbank and Burwood, and warned that was the north shore’s future under the government’s policies.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-is-going-to-be-devastat…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Cost of negative gearing and other rental deductions soaring, Australian Treasury data reveals
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)Concessions for superannuation cost the federal budget almost $50bn a year while rental deductions, much of them for negative gearing, have jumped by more than half in three years, the annual Treasury summary of tax expenditures shows.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/cost-of-n…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent.How Albanese could tweak negative gearing to save money and build more new homes
Peter Martin ABC (No paywall)There are two things the prime minister needs to get into his head about tax. One is that saying he won't make any further changes no longer works. The other is that negative gearing doesn't do much to get people into homes. Anthony Albanese seemed to have taken the first point on board when he spoke to Insiders on Sunday.
Rather than promising flat out not to change the rules around negative gearing, he merely said he was "supportive of the current rules, we have not considered changes to them".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-07/albanese-tax-changes-nega…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .Kimberley Community Legal Services turns away vulnerable clients as funding falls short
Rosanne Maloney ABC (No paywall)One of northern Western Australia's only community legal centres has been forced to close its doors to hundreds of clients as a lack of resources continues to hinder its ability to meet community demand. Kimberley Community Legal Services (KCLS) covers the Kimberley towns of Kununurra and Broome, with eight lawyers servicing an area the size of Victoria. Chief executive Christine Robinson said the not-for-profit organisation supported some of the country's most vulnerable people — mostly Indigenous clients with highly complex needs.
Ms Robinson said the struggle to meet demand was the most acute she had seen in her 30-year career.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-06/kimberley-community-legal…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Rent.Homeless Australians are dying at age 44 on average in hidden crisis
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of Australians experiencing homelessness are dying more than 30 years prematurely in a nationwide crisis fuelled by despair, critical housing shortages, a breakdown in health provision, violence on the streets and failures of the justice system.
A 12-month Guardian Australia investigation identifying and examining more than 600 cases has found people experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, a shocking life expectancy gap that experts say is worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/05/homeless-…
# Must read Australia, Discrimination, Security and safety.