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
What is a sustaining tenancies program?
AHURI (No paywall)AHURI Brief: Sustaining tenancy programs assist tenants who are at risk of losing their rental accommodation to stay in their homes and therefore ‘avoid eviction and entry into homelessness.’ Tenant support programs may also help some tenants at the beginning of their tenancy by supporting formerly homeless people enter and sustain a new rental tenancy.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/brief/what-sustaining-tenancie…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.Paying price of housing stress
Lachlan Leeming (No paywall)The number of homeless people in NSW has surged by 10 per cent in just two years – with an economic cost that could hit $2.5 billion in the next six years, according to a landmark new report. (Daily Telegraph) Read the report at: [https://www.ncoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IE_Aftershock_Housing_V5b_SINGLES.pdf]
https://www.ncoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Daily-Telegr…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Housing market.Who is using the Tribunal and why?
Jack Moon and Jemima Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)We are always trying to better understand what is happening for NSW renters. We want to make sure we can identify the problems and pressures renters are experiencing, as well as whether the policies and laws in place to support them are working. One way we do this is to look at what is happening within the tenancy and social housing lists of the Consumer and Commercial Division of at the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (sometimes called ‘NCAT’ or just ‘the Tribunal’). ... Key take-aways: NCAT is primarily used by landlords. And they use it to seek eviction. Social housing landlords are applying to evict at a much higher rate than landlords in private rental. Private renters in Western Sydney are disproportionally impacted by eviction applications. And, over 40% of eviction applications annually for all of NSW are from Western Sydney LGAs.
# Research alert NSW, Bond, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents, Sydney.Tribunal data shows eviction applications much higher in Sydney’s west
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW landlords are far more likely to take legal action against tenants than the other way around, and the rate of eviction applications is many times higher in Sydney’s west and south-west, new data shows. Tenants’ Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said the year’s worth of figures from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal showed the system was stacked against tenants and reiterated calls for a ban on “no grounds” evictions.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tribunal-data-shows-eviction…
# TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, Bond, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions, Sydney.Alarm bells of a 'climate sub-prime' facing finance, as insurance on home loans gets tricky
Emilia Terzon ABC (No paywall)Alarm bells are being rung about a looming "sub-prime" crisis that could see banks exposed to the elements and more borrowers turned away from home loans in areas prone to extreme weather. Climate change is something many borrowers are not factoring in when they buy a property, but risk assessors say it should be top of mind.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-07/climate-change-insurance-…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market.Banks and super funds to work on national affordable housing plan
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The nation’s big four banks, superannuation funds and other institutional investors will be brought in by the federal government to help boost finance for social and affordable housing under a plan revealed by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Speaking in Brisbane on Friday, Chalmers said the finance sector would be a key part of a series of roundtable discussions aimed at sharply increasing the amount of investment in areas of national importance.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/banks-and-super-funds-to…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.‘Really, really horrible’: Grim pickings for renters as vacancies dry up
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Tenants searching for a new home are facing the toughest outlook on record as the national rental vacancy rate holds steady at 0.9 per cent for the third month in a row, new figures show. Tenant advocates are concerned about rising rents and a shortage of available rental listings that can lead some tenants to accept worse conditions in their homes to avoid a situation where their lease is not renewed. ... “If you are forced to move, whether by eviction or work, you are facing a much harder time finding a home,” Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said. “It also means that while you’re in a home already, you start to change your behaviour to try to avoid being forced to move, and you might be putting up with things that you wouldn’t ordinarily.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/really-really-horrible-grim…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Tenant advocates call for halt to public housing evictions 'without grounds' after human rights complaint
Emma Wynne ABC (No paywall)Community legal centres around Western Australia have issued a joint statement calling for a moratorium on all evictions from public housing "without grounds", saying vulnerable people are being left on the street with no opportunity to make a case to keep their homes. Despite a Federal Court injunction preventing one family's eviction and a pending investigation by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), tenant advocates are speaking out after an Aboriginal man was recently evicted from his Perth public housing unit "without grounds" and is now living in a local park.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-08/tenant-advocates-call-for…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Human rights, No-grounds evictions, Race and ethnicity.