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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.

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Archive

Publish date
Key topics

Public housing waitlist in Victoria balloons by 55%: ‘I’d never get anything, so why bother?’

Stephanie Convery
The Guardian (No paywall)

Cheryl Hawkett applied to access public housing in 2015. She was living in the rural Victorian town of Moe, in a bedsit so small and cramped “you couldn’t really swing a cat in it”. Her doctor wrote a letter to accompany the application, arguing that her housing situation was detrimental to her health. She was grappling with serious anxiety and depression at the time, which culminated in a hospital stay under the care of a psychiatrist. Hawkett was 68 when she put in the application. She’s now 75, and only just this month moved into a public housing unit in Lang Lang. ... Hawkett is far from alone in enduring a multiyear wait for housing. The waitlist for public and community housing in Victoria has ballooned in the past five years, from 35,392 in June 2017 to 54,945 in March this year – an increase of 55%. The increase has been almost entirely in the area of priority need, with 18,574 households added to the priority list in that time. Of those on the priority list, 6,663 households, or 22%, joined since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/21/public-ho…

# Australia, Public and community housing, Health, Older people, Women.
 

Tenant vs. Landlord: Who is responsible for mould outbreak in rental properties?

Hayley Taylor
(No paywall)

Mould outbreaks are ravaging humid Australian homes and damaging contents - but if you’re renting, who is responsible for cleaning it up? Experts say that depends on what caused the mould. But they recommend moving quickly against the health-threatening fungi. Also, read Dannielle Maguire's article entitled: 'Where you should be looking for mould and how long it takes to start growing' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-20/where-to-look-for-mould-removal-treatment-prevention-wet-weather/101076264] Read Olivia Willis's article entitled: 'What are the health effects of mould, and how do you get rid of it?' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2022-05-23/mould-health-effects-how-do-you-get-rid-of-it/101085258]

https://7news.com.au/business/housing/tenant-vs-landlord-who-is-…

# TUNSW in the media, Video Australia, Rent, Health, Housing market, Mould, No-grounds evictions.
 

Bendigo mother Ebonie has applied for 380 rentals in a bid to escape homelessness

Shannon Schubert and Kimberley Price
ABC (No paywall)

Bendigo mother of four Ebonie has been looking for permanent housing for her family for a year. She's ambivalent about her situation. On the one hand, she's happy to have a roof over her head. On the other, the bedsit cabin supplied as crisis accommodation feels too small for her family and she struggles to understand why she can't secure a permanent home. ... Over the past 12 months, Ebonie has submitted more than 380 rental applications, but she believes most landlords have not considered her as the rent would be more than a third of her income.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-20/homeless-bendigo-mother-e…

# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability.
 

‘It ruined me’: No turning back to damp musty homes

Julie Power
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)

Growing up in a damp and draughty housing, builder Adam Souter suffered severe asthma attacks. A generation later, when his young son developed asthma, too, he realised that poorly ventilated Australian homes where mould and bacteria flourished were making his family sicker. Now, a healthy extension called Pepper Tree next to Souter’s 1981 brick veneer Wollongong home, by architect Alexander Symes, is one of two “passive house” projects on the shortlist of the 2022 NSW Architecture Awards’ sustainable category.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-ruined-me-no-turning-back-to-…

# Australia, Health, Home, Housing market, Mould.
 

My fantasy of ageing in a share house is dead – my friends now joke darkly about living together in cars

Deirrdre Fidge
The Guardian (No paywall)

As property prices and costs of living climb, I am having more of these black conversations about how and where to live as we age.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/17/my-fantasy…

# Australia, Housing market, Older people.
 

‘A very major correction’ under way as building industry faces crisis

Josh Gordon, Jackson Graham, Tawar Razaghi and Elizabeth Redman
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)

Australia’s construction sector is bracing for a major slump over the next year as builders struggle with surging costs for raw materials, worker shortages, supply chain delays and looming interest rate rises.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-very-major-correction-under-wa…

# Australia, Housing market.
 

Vacancies Nudge Higher but Rental Market Still Tight

Phil Bartsch
(No paywall)

New data shows a small light has flickered on at the end of Australia’s national rental crisis tunnel. At least, that’s the cautiously optimistic view. According to the latest report from SQM Research, the national residential property rental vacancy rate edged fractionally higher in April—rising to 1.1 per cent. Marginally above the 1 per cent vacancy rate recorded in March, it is the first increase this year. (The Urban Developer)

https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/vacancies-nudge-highe…

# Australia, Rent, Housing market.
 

Rental crisis caused by short-stay businesses leaving NSW tenants evicted and homeless

Joanna Woodburn
ABC (No paywall)

Nick Crowley and his dog Barney have become good at packing up their worldly belongings and moving. As a renter at Orange in central west New South Wales, he has had to do it twice in just over a year because the owners wanted to lease the homes to companies to charge higher rent. "If they're getting offered double the amount to rent, then they'd be mad not to take it, but from my perspective it was a bit of a bugger," Mr Crowley said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-19/rental-crisis-nsw-tenants…

# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Regional NSW, Short-term holiday letting.
 

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