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
Community responds to Waterloo South: 50 per cent social and affordable
Peter Hehir The South Sydney Herald (No paywall)The 1,000-plus public housing residents of the Waterloo South public housing estate have recently learned of the new government’s plans to redevelop the estate.
Critics point out the challenges of what will be a vastly denser precinct, and the government’s reluctance to guarantee affordable housing in perpetuity. Others are hopeful that developers might deliver above the minimum requirements.
https://southsydneyherald.com.au/community-responds-to-waterloo-…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal.Hundreds rally, calling on NSW government to fight housing crisis
Anthony Anderson news.com.au (No paywall)Hundreds of protesters have descended on Sydney Town Hall, calling on the New South Wales government to make more commitments to public housing and fixing rental affordability in their upcoming budget.
The Rally to Fix the Housing Crisis got underway early on Saturday afternoon, with crowd largely consisting of young adults who will likely never own their own home, under current conditions, and struggle to make rent.
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/hundreds-rally…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform, Housing affordability.Battle over density in Sydney's east: a rash of developments are housing fewer, richer people
Michael McGowan The Guardian (No paywall)Sydney property developers are buying blocks of units, knocking them down and replacing them with fewer luxury apartments or homes, a trend that is reducing dwelling numbers amid a statewide housing crisis.
Numerous developments across inner Sydney and the eastern suburbs have been approved, with more in the planning stage. In most cases interwar low-rise apartment buildings will be demolished to make way for “ultra-luxurious” homes for many fewer residents.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/06/battle-ov…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development.Embedding indigenous advice in government policy key to real change
Vivienne Milligan Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)In discussions of the upcoming referendum on establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a question often raised is how will it make a difference? This has been difficult for advocates to address because instances of governments’ empowering our First Nations peoples are few and far between.
There is, however, a valuable example in NSW of the demonstrable benefits of having Aboriginal advisers working closely with government. This year marks 25 years since the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO) took control of the provision of social housing for Aboriginal people in NSW.
https://johnmenadue.com/embedding-indigenous-advice-in-governmen…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Campaigns and law reform.Disastrous: low-income tenants priced out of newly renovated boarding houses
Daisy Dumas The Guardian (No paywall)When a boarding house in Sydney’s inner-west was razed by arson last year, taking with it the lives of three residents and leaving eight without homes, the hope was that it would be replaced with a newer, safer version of the same low-cost community housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/03/disastrou…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers.There’s a secret behind this $28m Sydney apartment block that few people know about
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Few people guess that a new award-winning apartment block with its address on Bigge Street in Warwick Farm written in oversized, concrete letters is public housing. “That’s housing commission?” asked an incredulous member of the public seeing the flats for the first time.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/there-s-a-secret-behind-this…
# Must read NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, DCJ Housing, Families, Health, Home, Housing affordability, Housing market, Neighbours, Older people, Personal stories, Planning and development, Renting culture, State Government, Strong communities.NSW minister concedes social housing situation ‘desperate’ as waitlist for most in need doubles in a decade
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)Rose Jackson announces monthly release of social housing data, with first tranche showing ‘priority’ applications soaring. New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/11/nsw-minis…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.Bureaucrat threatens to remove Byron Council’s planning powers
Hans Lovejoy Echo (No paywall)Byron Shire Council risks losing its planning powers to ‘independent intervention’ if it does not ‘demonstrate how it intends to improve its housing supply’. In an aggressive letter to Council’s general manager, Mark Arnold, Sydney-based Deputy Secretary NSW Planning, Marcus Ray, outlined what he believes is Council’s failure in fast-tracking housing supply for the area, adding that Council’s development application (DA) processing times ‘are among the slowest in the state’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2023/08/bureaucrat-threatens-to-remove-b…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market, Local Government.