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
Cockroaches, leaks and asbestos – my living conditions were shameful. So I named and shamed the culprits
Kwajo Tweneboa The Guardian (No paywall)I never planned to become a housing rights campaigner. I hoped to become an artist; I always loved to paint. But events put me on a different path. It feels as if I missed an exit on the motorway somewhere and now I can’t turn back. It started when we moved into a housing association flat on the Eastfields estate in Mitcham, south London, in 2018: my father, my two sisters, aged 17 and 20, and 19-year-old me. Before that, we were in temporary accommodation: a half-converted garage that had mould and damp on the walls and a bathroom the size of a cupboard. We had been there since 2016, waiting to get a permanent council property, but the new place was no better.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/co…
# Must read, Hot topic International, Rent, Repairs.Unions and Tenant Organizations Are Natural Allies
Fran Quigley Jacobin ()Across the US, labor unions are starting to ally with tenant organizers around affordable housing and tenant protection campaigns. The efforts reflect a growing sense of shared interests — and shared corporate enemies. Hope Vaughn was a tenant union organizer before she knew there was a tenant union. When her New Haven, Connecticut, landlord Ocean Management refused to address the mold in her apartment, the rodents in the building, and the standing, rancid water in the basement, Vaughn’s response was obvious to her. After more than a dozen years as a long-term care certified nursing assistant member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199 NE, she had no intention of fighting back alone. She began knocking on her neighbors’ doors and gathering signatures on a petition demanding repairs and a cleanup.
https://jacobin.com/2024/06/labor-tenants-unions-organizing-soli…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent.‘No fault’ evictions in London surge 52% in a year as Sadiq Khan slams failure to ban them as 'huge betrayal'
Noah Vickers The Standard (No paywall)The number of ‘no fault’ evictions in London increased 52 per cent in the last year - more than five times the rate seen in the rest of England and Wales, a City Hall analysis reveals. Sadiq Khan said the data showed how the Government’s failure to ban the evictions - also known as section 21 notices - had been a “huge betrayal”. Section 21 notices are used by landlords to evict tenants with two months’ notice and without any reason needing to be given. According to the latest Government data, there were 11,880 of these ‘no fault’ eviction claims in London in the year to the end of March 2024, up 52 per cent from 7,834 in the year to March 2023.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sadiq-khan-no-fault-evict…
# Hot topic International, Eviction.What’s causing Europe’s housing crisis?
Round Table (No paywall)VIDEO: The high cost of living and increase in house prices across Europe has left many lower income households struggling to make ends meet. This at the same time as rental prices are soaring. For the first time in decades, younger generations could have fewer opportunities than their parents. Who can still afford to live in some of the world’s most expensive cities? And why is the housing situation so bad?
# Hot topic, Video International, .'I put off starting a family because of a £300 rent rise'
Gabrielle Sungailaite BBC (No paywall)For 32-year-old Aimee, the prospect of starting a family remains out of reach. She and her husband were priced out of their two-bedroom house in Surrey when their landlord hiked their rent by £300 a month, forcing them to move into a smaller one-bedroom property. "I'm at the age where I want to have children, but because we had to downsize, we are just unable to." She says she and her husband won't now try to start a family until they are able to move again. "I now pretty much live out of one room. I pretty much work, sleep and everything from my bedroom."
# Must read International, Rent.My rent has gone up £300 a month’: Pain of soaring costs and zero hours contracts
Joe Middleton The Independent (No paywall)Urwah Chaudhary is one of millions of Britons struggling with the cost of living and record-breaking rent price increases. The full-time student, who works as a call centre agent on a minimum wage and on a zero-hours contract, has faced a monthly rent increase from £900 to £1,200 in the space of a year. Inflation, the increase in prices in the rental market in her local area, and a struggle to afford the mortgage after successive Bank of England interest rate hikes, were the reasons given by her landlord for the hefty additional monthly outlay.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rent-prices-cost…
# Hot topic International, Rent.No need to jump through hoops! Olympics rental boom may be over
Eleanor Butler Euro News (No paywall)Paris is expecting to welcome an expected 15 million tourists this summer as it hosts this year's Olympic Games. However, it looks as though those seeking reasonably priced accommodation may get lucky, with costs expected to be lower than first predicted. According to insurance firm Réassurez-moi, the price of booking one night in Paris or a neighbouring area during the Olympic period stood at €436 in April, down from €1,023 seen in July last year. The drop in prices, experts say, is primarily caused by an excess of supply.
https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/04/22/no-need-to-jump-thr…
# Hot topic International, Rent.High cost of buying a home could impact presidential race
CBS News (No paywall)VIDEO: We look at one economic indicator that could hit home in the presidential election: the high cost of buying that first home and living the American dream. This may feel almost unattainable in key battle ground states like Arizona where would be buyers face housing shortages and high interest rates. President Biden and former President Donald Trump have talked about the high cost and supply of housing on the campaign trail. Some voters in key swing states say it will be a factor in how they vote this fall.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/high-cost-of-buying-a-home-could-i…
# Hot topic, Video International, .