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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
Homelessness peak bodies accuse state gov of selling public land that should be used for building social housing
Sarah Petty realestate.com.au (No paywall)Victoria’s homelessness peak bodies have accused the state government of selling public land to private developers when they should be building more social housing. A site at 18a Miller St, Preston has been picked to be part of the state government’s Small Sites pilot program which is looking for developers to deliver 260 homes across Miller St and three other sites, with only 10 per cent allocated to affordable housing.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/homelessness-peak-bodies-accu…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.Homeless man reoffends after asking for two-year jail term amid housing shortage
Brianna Melville ABC (No paywall)A homeless man who asked for an immediate jail term due to a lack of available housing in Western Australia reoffended hours after he was released into the community. During sentencing on Monday, David Ambrosius, 48, had asked for two years in jail for starting a fire at the abandoned Batavia Motor Inn in Geraldton last year. Ambrosius asked to be imprisoned, citing the lack of housing and support services available in the Midwest region. He told the Geraldton District Court he would reoffend if he was released.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-20/geraldton-wa-homeless-man…
# Must read Australia, .State Government Airbnb incentive lures 17 home owners across Augusta-Margaret River and City of Busselton
Warren Hately AMR Times (No paywall)A State Government initiative enticing short-stay accommodation owners to return their homes to the rental market has netted 17 applicants across the Capes region. And, with rental availability slipping backwards another notch in the latest figures, desperate renters welcomed the extra homes. Premier Roger Cook announced the program earlier this year offering a $10,000 inducement to get homes off short stay renting sites and back on the market for renters.
https://www.amrtimes.com.au/news/augusta-margaret-river-times/st…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Queensland government announces new social housing development aimed at helping older women experiencing homelessness
Lexy Hamilton-Smith and Lawrence Jeffcoat ABC (No paywall)Maggie Shambrook has been living in temporary accommodation in Brisbane for six years and counts herself lucky to have a roof over her head. As a single woman over 55 she is part of the fastest growing group of Australians experiencing homelessness. "I lost my job and my home, I thought I'd be living in and renting for the next 20 years in the same week," she said. She found temporary accommodation, a small unit on the bottom floor of a 1970's brick home at Banyo in Brisbane's northside. "I could be living in a car or in a tent, and I am not and there are thousands of women who are, and some are taking their lives," Ms Shambrook said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/queensland-government-ann…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Thousands of cheaper rental homes to disappear from market as new crisis hits
Keith Cooper inews.co.uk (Paywall)The number of cheaper homes available for rent could soon fall by thousands due to the affordable housing “scandal” revealed by i that has left brand-new properties sitting empty and unused. Experts predict knock-on effects from the unfolding crisis, caused by housing associations being unable to afford the homes, will hit families already suffering the surging prices of an overheated rental market. i has identified examples of developers and councils switching affordable rental properties towards home ownership models because they can’t find associations to act as landlords.
https://inews.co.uk/news/housing/thousands-cheaper-rental-homes-…
# Hot topic International, .‘Doing nothing is not an option’ – top economists back planning reform and public housing as fixes for Australia’s housing crisis
Peter Martin The Conversation (No paywall)Top economists are unanimous in believing Australia’s housing market is in crisis. Offered a choice of 14 measures identified by the Economic Society of Australia as likely to restrain prices for buyers and renters, none of the 49 leading economists polled picked: “do nothing, the market will determine appropriate prices”. The economists chosen for the poll are from a panel of about 70 experts in fields including macroeconomics, economic modelling, housing and labour markets, maintained by the society since 2015.
https://theconversation.com/doing-nothing-is-not-an-option-top-e…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.B.C. court overturns eviction of social housing tenant who owed $45 in unpaid rent
Ian Holliday CTV News (No paywall)A resident of a Vancouver social housing building who was ordered to move out because of a disputed $45 rent shortage has won the right to stay, at least for now. Jeremy Wall lives in a building on Burrard Street that is managed by the Kettle Friendship Society. Last September, the non-profit issued a one-month notice to end tenancy for cause, according to a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision(opens in a new tab). The eviction notice "cited several grounds" for ending the tenancy, the court decision indicates. However, when Wall took the society to the Residential Tenancy Branch to dispute the notice, the RTB arbitrator upheld the eviction solely on the basis that Wall had been "repeatedly late paying the rent."
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-court-overturns-eviction-of-social-hou…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Public and community housing.Tenants’ Unions Across the US Now Have a National Federation
Rebecca Burns Jacobin (No paywall)Five tenants’ unions from across the US have announced the launch of a new national organization to take on the power of multistate real-estate capital. The Tenant Union Federation is the first major national effort at tenant organizing in 40 years. “Every tenant deserves a union — everyone deserves to move with the kind of power I found here,” said Donna Goldsmith, an organizer with the Louisville Tenants Union (one of the federation’s founding members) to a virtual audience of renters from around the country.
https://jacobin.com/2024/08/national-tenants-union-landlords-har…
# Must read International, Rent.