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
Why the next four months could see a huge spike in evictions in Wales
Jennie Bibbings Inside Housing (Paywall)From Wales ... A temporary gap in legal protection risks sending the message to landlords that now is the time to push through with evictions ... The Coronavirus Act 2020 ended on 24 March, meaning that eviction notice periods drop back to two months from six. Then, from 15 July, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 finally comes into force, putting notice periods for no-fault evictions back up to six months permanently for new tenants. This yo-yoing of notice periods risks sending a message to private landlords that now is the time to push through with evictions. Shelter Cymru’s casework is already showing a 78% increase in no-fault notices compared with pre-pandemic.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/why-the-next-fou…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, No-grounds evictions.Regions tell Barnaby Joyce they need workers, houses, childcare before budgeted infrastructure
Eliza Borrello, Kath Sullivan and Lucy Barbour ABC (No paywall)Port Hedland Mayor Peter Carter welcomed the money but said it could be hard to get the work done given the Pilbara's dire labour, housing, and childcare shortages. "We need so many houses, we're so far behind the eight ball. I mean, what comes first, the chicken or the egg?" he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-31/regions-need-childcare-wo…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Work, employment.LAHC lands public housing campaign
Andrew Chuter (No paywall)Local community groups are building momentum around a campaign for public housing on a vacant block next to Redfern Oval. The site, at 600 Elizabeth Street, had 18 public housing residences until they were demolished in 2013. It is entirely owned by the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC). Since then, various government proposals and consultations have come and gone while the wait list for public housing has grown to over 50,000 people, with a wait time of 5-10 years. Initially LAHC proposed retaining public ownership of the land, but the current plans involve selling it to a private developer in return for only 30 per cent social housing. Action for Public Housing rejects this privatisation and calls for 100 per cent public housing. LAHC says it achieves its objectives of “optimising social housing on the site at no cost to government”.
https://southsydneyherald.com.au/lahc-lands-public-housing-campa…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Campaigns and law reform, Estate renewal, Housing market.Parks, pools and piazzas: Push to make Sydney in 2050 a place for people
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney will be transformed by three long-mooted public squares in the heart of the city, wider footpaths and harbour swimming pools under a City of Sydney plan to turn more urban spaces over to people by 2050. The council’s long-term strategy for what post-pandemic Sydney could look like in 30 years includes better connections to culture, Indigenous history and the harbour, and the progressive greening of the city centre.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/parks-pools-and-piazzas-push…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development.Regional housing is in crisis, but will the next government have any answers?
Patrick Bell ABC (No paywall)In the last week, both the Coalition and Labor have announced similar loan guarantee policies for people fighting their way onto the property ladder with 10,000 regional home buyers having the option of buying with a five per cent deposit. But would this do anything to make housing in the regions more affordable? Or, could it even make the problem worse?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-02/regional-housing-in-crisi…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Regional NSW.Homeless deaths in the UK have increased by 80% since 2019. But we had a solution
Simon Hattenstone and Daniel Lavelle The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Two years ago this week, the government launched a scheme called Everyone In, which did just what it said on the tin. It provided funding to ensure rough sleepers were housed in hotels or hostels during the first lockdown. In a single stroke, it essentially eradicated Britain’s street homelessness crisis. ... We hoped at the time it would be the start of a concerted, long-term plan to deal with homelessness in general and street homelessness in particular. How naive we were. A few months later the government quietly pulled the plug on the programme. Look around you now, and it’s hard to imagine that rough sleepers were living in hotels only a couple of years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/31/homeless-d…
# International, Homelessness.Tenancy rights offer opportunities for change
Adam Hughes Henry Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The threat of being unable to afford to buy a home is now supplanted by the fear of being unable to afford ever increasing rents. Yet there has been progress, the fear of being unable to afford increasing rents is now giving way to real fears of becoming homeless. The most concerning reality is that this phenomenon is not only Australia wide, but there is little to indicate that there is much political will to address the situation. This is a society where speculative finance and the desire for socially irresponsible profit, is causing untold damage to our communities.
https://johnmenadue.com/tenancy-rights-offer-opportunities-for-c…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.Exhibition: The Promise of Housing
Miriam Charlie (No paywall)Also named ‘Li Bardawu (The Houses)’, or ‘My Country No Home, Still Waiting’, the collection showcases portraits of First Nations residents and their houses in the gulf town of Borroloola in the Northern Territory. Tin Sheds Gallery, 148 City Road, Darlington NSW 2008, 7 April - 14 May 2022.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/architecture/about/tin-sheds-gallery/t…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Housing market.