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
$4 million extra funding for improved access to advice and advocacy for tenants
The Lismore App (No paywall)The NSW Government has provided a funding boost to the Tenants Advice & Advocacy Services to support tenants across NSW. The network of 21 local not-for-profit organisations, help tenants to understand their rights, support them during negotiations and in resolving disputes, and assist and advocate for them at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Funded by NSW Fair Trading, these services will be boosted by $1 million extra a year until 2028. In 2024-25, funding has increased to $16.2m. The funding boost follows the government’s recent passage of a significant rental reform package to assist renters in over a decade.
https://lismoreapp.com.au/NewsStory/4-million-extra-funding-for-…
# Must read NSW, Rent.No-fault evictions banned and break-lease fees capped under sweeping reforms in Victoria
Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)No-fault evictions will be banned in Victoria and renters will not have to pay more than four weeks’ rent for breaking their lease under a suite of reforms announced by Jacinta Allan. The premier announced the measures on Wednesday, as well as a ban on landlords and real estate agents charging fees to process rent or conduct background checks. It comes after Guardian Australia’s Hot Property series revealed an increasing number of real estate agents were moving tenants’ payments on to third-party “rent tech” platforms, which charge service fees.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/30/no-fault-…
# Legal significance Australia, Eviction.WA public housing tenants struggle without adequate air conditioning or insulation
Rosanne Maloney ABC (No paywall)Savannah would often drive around town at night during wet season to soothe her baby daughter to sleep with the car's air conditioning. Stretching between October and April, wet season temperatures in Broome, 2,000 kilometres north of Perth, routinely average close to 40 degrees with little relief after dark. As a single mother-of-three, it was one of the many adjustments Savannah made after moving into a public housing unit without cooling and proper insulation. Her landlord — Western Australia's Department of Communities — said she would need to pay out of her own pocket to install air conditioning which the department would also need to approve. Struggling to meet the $400 outlay, her family eventually helped her acquire a budget, inefficient air conditioner.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-27/wa-public-housing-tenants…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Pregnant mother with 'guaranteed income' left homeless after almost 100 unsuccessful rental applications
Liz Gywnn ABC (No paywall)Nicky is expecting to give birth to her fifth child any day now. She has packed her hospital bag with all the necessities like baby clothes, dummies and a soft toy, but hasn't been able to set up a nursery or a bassinet because she's homeless. The 34-year-old has been living in a two-bedroom motel provided by social welfare group Micah Projects with her four children after several months couch surfing with friends and family. While Nicky is grateful to have a roof over her head, she admits not having secure housing like she did for her previous births is "nerve-racking".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-29/expecting-mother-homeless…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Women's shelter group urges government to unlock 'meanwhile use' housing for domestic violence survivors
Women's shelter group urges government to unlock 'meanwhile use' housing for domestic violence survivors ABC (No paywall)At 70, Marilyn Johnson has experienced multiple abusive partners throughout her life. "I once lived with a man who would destroy my home and furniture, and he would cut up all my clothes with a razor blade," she said. Ms Johnson left her last abusive relationship 20 years ago and has since lived on her own. Recently, when her health deteriorated, she wanted to live closer to family on the New South Wales Central Coast. She was accepted into Allawah House, an unused aged-care facility that has been turned into a "meanwhile use" property by Women's Community Shelters (WCS). "Meanwhile use" is the short-term utilisation of a vacant building for social or community needs — the WCS model is used specifically for women fleeing domestic violence or who are at risk of homelessness.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-05/meanwhile-use-housing-wom…
# Must read Australia, Domestic violence.Public housing tower tenants gain more time from being evicted
Rachael Dexter The Age (No paywall)Public housing tenants in Melbourne’s inner north have gained more time against being forcibly evicted in two months, as a legal battle over secret documents detailing the decision to raze the residential towers wages on. A class action lawsuit, involving 479 households from three public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne, was due to finish on Tuesday but will now extend into 2025 as lawyers for the Victorian government dig in over the ordered release of cabinet documents. The court previously heard Homes Victoria intended to issue legal notices to vacate from January 1, 2025, to anyone who had yet to accept an offer for alternative accommodation. The extension of the legal case means tenants who have not already relocated can stay in their homes while the lawsuit continues.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/public-housing-tower…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing.Rents for these two-bedroom units reach $900 a week. Here’s why they shouldn’t
Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Low- and moderate-income workers are being pushed into rental stress as two-bedroom units in Sydney are being advertised under the affordable housing scheme for up to $900 a week – well above the city’s median asking price. A combination of spiralling Sydney rents and a system that experts described as “fragmented and incoherent” means many affordable housing properties, notionally let at a discount to market prices, are beyond the means of the people they are meant to accommodate.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/rents-for-these-two-bedroom-…
# NSW, Rent.Residents to return to Cabbage Tree Island
Aslan Stand Echo (No paywall)Following the devastating 2022 floods residents from Cabbage Tree Island have fought long and hard to be able to return to their homes on Cabbage Tree Island. Residents challenged the decision to not allow them to return to Cabbage Tree Island and that was supported by the new Jali LALC board that was elected on 20 November. Kylie Jacky was elected as Chair and Joanne Bolt as Deputy Chair of the new board at the Jali LALC’s AGM. This has led to a change of approach with the board meeting of 28 October, 2024 now voting ‘to support residents of Cabbage Tree Island to return to their homes’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2024/10/residents-to-return-to-cabbage-t…
# Must read Australia, Disasters.