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
Five-bedroom house to living in a car: The rise of our older homeless women
Anna Wall (No paywall)Fourteen years ago, Elizabeth* owned a business and was living in a five-bedroom home overlooking the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. Now, after a messy divorce, she’s lost her home and has even spent three months living in her car. Far from the image you’d expect of a homeless woman, she is one of a growing number of older Australian women who find themselves losing their financial security later in life, and is warning others to protect themselves. (Starts at 60)
https://startsat60.com/media/news/rise-of-homeless-older-women-i…
# Must read Australia, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Should police address homelessness? One city is betting on a new model
Vivian Ho The Guardian (No paywall)It’s been some time now since Shanna Couper Orona has slept on the sidewalk, but she can’t forget the first time a police officer kicked the side of her tent in an encampment sweep in San Francisco. ... [But] San Francisco has an initiative to take police out of the response to the crisis of homelessness altogether.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/29/san-francisco-ho…
# International, Homelessness, Human rights.It’s an ‘aged-care budget’... but will it deliver or kick the can down the road?
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In the wake of a damning Aged Care Royal Commission, Prime Minister Scott Morrison set high expectations for a big jump in industry funding in this year’s federal budget when he described it as “an aged-care budget”. However, it now appears that the government is trying to manage those expectations, with informed opinions circulating in Canberra suggesting that an additional $10 billion in funding for the aged-care sector is imminent – but stretched out over the next four years.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/it-s-an-aged-c…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.Rosie and Ernie have struggled to find a home
Frank Film (No paywall)From New Zealand .... What can a seven-year-old boy teach a Christchurch MP about community housing? Frank Film investigates.
https://www.facebook.com/frankfilmnz/videos/220152713246940/
# Video International, Public and community housing.Disabled car parks 'discriminatory to able-bodied people', man in wheelchair told
Sophie Volker, Rebecca Levingston and Edwina Seselja ABC (No paywall)All four disabled car parks in a community housing complex in Brisbane have been water blasted and the wheelchair symbol removed after the housing department acted on a complaint that argued the accessible spots discriminated against able-bodied people.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-29/disabled-car-parks-discri…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Disability.... a rugby lunch to honour Wallaby great David Campese
Peter FitzSimons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Line of the day however, went to Vince Sorrenti: “And in club rugby,” he said, “we are looking forward to the big local derby, Eastern Suburbs v Randwick or, as we call it, ‘the Landlords v Tenants match’.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/more-australians-are-becoming-le…
# NSW, Sydney.‘People are desperate’: Regional renters forced to apply for homes sight unseen
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Real estate agents in regional areas with housing shortages are asking prospective tenants to complete a rental application before letting them attend a property inspection. Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants Union, said this practice used to be rare but it had taken off in the past six months across regional NSW, including the Central Coast, Illawarra, Hunter Valley, New England and Riverina.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/people-are-desperate-regiona…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.ACT Housing to evict single mother and children from home deemed unliveable five years ago
Jake Evans ABC (No paywall)Alex and her four children have been living in a home where lead paint flakes into the babies' cots and broken plumbing floods the carpet of her son's bedroom. Since falling pregnant five years ago, Alex has begged ACT Housing constantly to repair the property, which was assessed at the time as being "not fit for habitation". The 33-year-old said the property's issues had been unaddressed until today, when ACT Housing delivered an eviction notice, saying Alex had a week to leave the condemned home, because it was too unsafe.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-30/act-housing-eviction-moth…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Repairs, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials.