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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Government pushing ahead with controversial remote rental change as housing stress plagues Northern Territory
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory government is pushing ahead with a controversial policy change that will increase the rents of many remote residents. At the same time, new research has laid bare the reality of the Territory's housing problems, concluding the NT faces the nation's worst rates of housing stress.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-31/nt-rents-to-rise-amid-hou…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Human rights, State Government.‘They miss out’: soaring rents and insufficient support force more uni students in Australia to live with parents
Caitlin Cassidy The Guardian (No paywall)‘Generational shift’ in share accommodation as housing crisis puts young people under ‘enormous pressure.’ When Amelia Grace Wilson-Williams started her university degree, she didn’t imagine it would be spent bunkering down in the family home. But when the undergrad law student at the University of Technology in Sydney began hunting for rental properties in which to live alone or share with fellow students, she realised it was impossible while studying full time and only relying on her student Centrelink payments.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/30/they-miss…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Students, Sydney, Young people.Housing is unaffordable for many even though supply is growing
Kasey Chambers Canberra Times (No paywall)It's been a grim start to the year for Australians in housing stress. Already we've had news that thousands of affordable rentals will be wiped from the market, that rents are surging, and that our population is growing much faster than the rate we're building social housing. This news is playing into a housing market that has never been less affordable or more volatile. Australians are spending record amounts on housing, and more and more people are being plunged into housing stress.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8046397/how-is-it-that-su…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness.Kalgoorlie council reluctantly supports $3 million workers' accommodation camp amid housing shortage
Andrew Chounding ABC (No paywall)A proposed 60-bed workers' camp to be built in the City of Kalgoorlie has been referred to an independent assessment panel, rather than face the scrutiny of the local council. At this week's ordinary council meeting, councillors voted unanimously to send the proposed $3 million development to the Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel (DAP).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-25/kalgoorlie-workers-accomm…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Work, employment.‘Holding cell’: Melbourne family with disabled son stuck in ‘transitional’ housing for a decade
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)When Rosalie Dow moved into transitional housing in Melbourne with her two young children in 2013, she thought it would only be for a few months. Dow’s son, Mayer, was two, and showing signs of what would soon be diagnosed as Coffin-Lowry syndrome, a rare and often debilitating genetic condition with complications including intellectual disability, seizures, hearing impairment, sensory and behavioural issues, and an inability to walk.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/28/holding-c…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Disability, Families, Human rights.Teen with autism forced to live in Bunbury hospital for more than three months after NDIS property eviction
Georgia Loney ABC (No paywall)A 17-year-old boy with autism spent 99 days in a country hospital after he was evicted from supported accommodation as a result of complaints about damage from the landlord and neighbours.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-26/marley-omeara-autism-ndis…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Disability, Young people.Renting in Victoria: Why there is no cooling standard for rental properties
Scott Carbines news.com.au (No paywall)Calls for compulsory cooling to be included in Victoria’s minimum standards for rental properties are once again being made as the state swelters through a hot summer. Rental properties must include heating in the main living area under the legislated requirements implemented over the past few years — but there is no requirement for cooling.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/melbourne-vic/rentin…
# Hot topic Australia, Climate change, Health, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Families are falling short, even with federal government rental assistance
Emma D'Agostino ABC (No paywall)A national coalition of welfare organisations has called on the federal government to increase rent assistance payments by at least 50 per cent as well as expand the eligibility criteria, as more Australians seek financial assistance to pay for housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-30/families-falling-short-ev…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Families, Welfare.