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
NCC 2022 set to lift home energy efficiency
Australian Building Codes Board (No paywall)Building Ministers have agreed to lift the energy standards of new homes through the National Construction Code (NCC). As of NCC 2022, new homes and apartments will need to achieve the equivalent of “7 stars” NatHERS thermal performance. A new annual energy use budget has been introduced for the first time. The budget will apply to the home’s major appliances such as heating and cooling equipment, hot water systems, lighting, swimming pool pumps, and onsite renewable energy systems. This is a significant step towards achieving zero energy and zero carbon buildings in Australia.
https://mailchi.mp/abcb.gov.au/see-the-first-release-of-ncc-4945…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Minimum habitability standards.Renters opt for booked-out caravan parks as regional housing crisis continues
Zilla Gordon ABC (No paywall)When Lauren Koplin requested repairs to her rental property in Adelaide, she says she and her special-needs son were given a notice to leave. She had requested work to address the mould in her kitchen, which had previously been water damaged. "It would have meant giving us a temporary kitchen while they did the work, but instead we got four weeks to pack up our lives," she told the Conversation Hour. After first staying at friends' houses and sleeping on their floors, Ms Koplin wanted a more stable environment for her son, Noah, so she opted to stay at a caravan park. "We took our bedding with us so it was more comfortable and like home and we just had our suitcases. ... Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said despite some creative solutions, not enough was being done to fix the housing crisis. She added that people moving into caravan parks often did not know their rights — those residing in a park for more than 60 days are subject to the Residential Tenancy Act. "That provides a lot more protection for people than those who are moving around," she said. But Ms Beveridge said often people were given orders to move on as they approached the 60-day mark. Also, read Sam Bold's article entitled: 'Grandparents move into a caravan in their driveway to help daughter's young family in rental crisis' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-30/rental-crisis-in-wa-pushes-people-into-caravans/101375460]. Read Sian Gard's article entitled: 'Homeless people living in Victorian park face eviction after council has land rezoned' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/homeless-people-living-in-park-to-be-evicted-after-rezoning/101382988].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-30/housing-crisis-forces-ren…
# Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.Robert Troy is a mere minnow among the sharks
Gene Kerrigan (Paywall)From Ireland ... The media labelled Robert Troy’s activities a “property scandal”. In truth, the TD is small fry. I can’t see how Mr Troy benefited from what he did or didn’t do. However, recent events revealed two things about Mr Troy. One: He’s a hustler who focused on accumulating properties during a housing crisis. Two: As a TD, he had a few forms to sign and he buggered it up. This doesn’t demonstrate qualities some of us would look for in a government minister — so, thank you Mr Troy, and goodbye. ... The most successful Irish scandal of recent times is the one that convinced us it’s not a scandal, it’s just the way things happened to turn out. I’m referring to a real property scandal — the housing crisis. ... The housing crisis isn’t just about homelessness — a social need is dominated by a market awash with adventurers. The result is outrageous rents and house prices, absurd doghouse ‘apartments’ offered at mad rents, young people having to live with their parents, damaging effects on mobility and personal choice: people used to be able to take jobs in other areas, knowing there would be somewhere to rent. (Independent) Also, read the article entitled:'Irish minister resigns over property interests' on the BBC at: [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1d1l33gdgo]
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/robert-troy-is-a-mere…
# International, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Work, employment, Young people.99 per cent of rentals out of reach for Australians on disability pension, royal commission hears
Elizabeth Wright and Celina Edmonds ABC (No paywall)The royal commission heard that 116,000 people experienced homelessness in Australia on the 2016 Census night. Data showed that 10,200 people living with severe or profound disability experienced some form of homelessness during that year. ... The hearing was told people with disability had a greater need for affordable and accessible housing, as they were often excluded from employment and relied on the disability support pension (DSP). Research conducted for the inquiry found less than 1 per cent of rental properties in Australia were affordable to people on the DSP, and people with a disability were waiting years for accessible social housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/disability-royal-commissi…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Disability, Homelessness, Housing market, Work, employment.How Oakland Tenants Forced Their Landlord to Turn Over the Keys
Mathilde Lind Gustavussen (No paywall)From the United States ... The city of Oakland’s longest rent strike has ended in victory for tenants. They didn’t just win necessary repairs or rent control; they decommodified their housing, getting profit-motivated landlords out of the picture altogether. ... If crafted with an emphasis on tenant control, these models and interventions can help combat residential alienation and bring us closer to the realization of housing as a human right, not a tool for profit maximization.
https://jacobin.com/2022/08/how-oakland-tenants-forced-their-lan…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Repairs, Human rights.‘I just want to stay’: the battle to save Glebe’s public housing
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Carolyn Ienna had long craved stability after moving house more than 40 times. Three decades ago, Ienna, who is non-binary, settled into the steadiest home they’ve ever known – a ground-floor unit in a public housing block, facing Wentworth Park in inner-city Glebe, that is on the cusp of redevelopment. enna was among a dozen residents at the Wentworth Park Road building who received a letter this month telling them they would have to leave the 1980s complex to make way for 45 new social housing properties. “It was terror,” Ienna, 59, said of their reaction. “I was hoping out of hope that all this wouldn’t happen.” The state’s social housing agency is forging ahead with plans to remake three public housing developments in Glebe, under its policy of building private dwellings on public land to fund new or upgraded social housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-just-want-to-stay-the-batt…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, State Government.Disabled person pushed to brink of homelessness after eviction from house needing repairs, inquiry told
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)A disabled person was pushed to the brink of homelessness when they were evicted from a private rental after requesting repairs and safety modifications, the disability royal commission has heard. Nik Moorhouse, 45, who is legally blind, told the commission on Tuesday they had been in a “desperate place” and had been unable to remain at university due to the stress caused by their housing insecurity. The royal commission is in the midst of a five-day hearing focused on the experiences of people with disability who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/30/disabled-…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Disability, Homelessness, Housing market.Selling up and raising rents: how landlords are cashing in and exacerbating the cost of living crisis
Ruby Lott-Lavigna The Guardian (No paywall)Sarah had been living with a friend in the same rental flat in south-west London for the past three years. But when she came to renew her tenancy this June, the agency asked for an extra £217 a month – a staggering 14% increase. The 26-year-old tried to negotiate, citing a multitude of problems – from an ongoing mice infestation to security issues with the flat’s shared entrance. Within 30 minutes of her email, the agent had advertised the property on RightMove, ready to be snapped up by the highest bidder. The landlord would not negotiate the price, she was told, leaving her with no choice but to pay up, or move out. Britain’s dire rental market is nothing new. ... But somehow, the rental market has reached a heady new state of crisis. ... Rental caps seem like an obvious solution, an idea supported by tenants’ rights groups like Generation Rent. Research has, so far, been US-centric, but the data looks promising. Studies consistently show rent controls stop the displacement of communities and are generally successful at keeping rents down – as long as their net is cast wide enough. London mayor Sadiq Khan has touted the idea regularly during his term, but with a quarter of Conservative MPs being landlords (and Khan having no remit to cap rents in the capital), it seems unlikely this government will prioritise driving down prices.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/31/britain-te…
# International, Rent, Housing market.