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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
Rough sleeping in London hits record high amid predictions of worse to come
Robert Booth The Guardian (No paywall)Rough sleeping in London hit another record high this summer, with an 18% increase on the summer before, as the mayor predicted the problem was likely to get worse this winter. In July, August and September 4,780 people were counted sleeping rough, the most since the quarterly counts began a decade ago. It was “a number that should incense us all”, said Emma Haddad, the chief executive of St Mungo’s, which helps rough sleepers in London and is seeing far more people with mental health problems. The number of new rough sleepers was up 12% in the year to more than 2,300 people, and 681 people are now considered to be living constantly on the streets – 42% more than in the same period in 2023.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/31/rough-sleeping-l…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Man evicted from dead parents’ home for failing to pay rates and insurance
Catherine Hutton NZ Herald (No paywall)A man who lived in his parents’ home after their deaths, on the understanding he paid the bills and maintained it, has been evicted for failing to keep his side of the bargain. The man’s situation is outlined in a recent Tenancy Tribunal decision, following an application from the Public Trust for possession of the house, claiming the man had become a squatter. The Public Trust are trustees of the parents’ estate, including the property. In April the Public Trust ordered the man to leave, but he remained living at the property in May.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/man-evicted-from-dead-parents-home…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.8 expensive U.S. cities losing renters to these affordable hot spots
Chloe Berger Fortune (No paywall)Skyhigh rent means some people are ditching skyscrapers for green(er) pastures, finds Bank of America. Discovering that the cost of living to be unaffordable in many cities, many Americans are either forced to move out or downgrade to cheaper apartments. Looking at deposits data from a fixed sample size of around 45 million customers, Bank of America found that the median rent payments of Americans went up by 3.7% in the past year. That’s a full point lower than the reported rate of rent inflation. So what does that mean? Basically—Americans are scrambling to find a deal, as the report attributes this gap to people “downgrading within the same city.”
https://fortune.com/article/where-to-move-for-cheaper-housing-ap…
# Hot topic International, Rent.'High rents could push us out of town'
Louise Graham and Elliot Deady BBC (No paywall)Tenants in the least affordable place to rent in Essex said rising costs were making them consider moving as far away as the Isle of Wight. Epping Forest was the only area in Essex where private rents exceeded more than a third of tenants' gross monthly income in the past financial year, the Office for National Statistics said. Kordian Lück, a shop manager from Epping, told BBC News he spent half of his salary on rent for his one-bedroom flat. "I feel like every year [rent] is getting more and more, and that's on top of the bills," he said.
# Hot topic International, Rent.Allotment rent increases lowered after backlash
Alex Seabrook BBC (No paywall)A city's allotment rents will increase next year but by less than was previously planned. Bristol City Council wanted to more than double the charge for a plot, to help pay for a growing backlog of repairs. But tenants opposed the plans, claiming there was "no logic to the increases". Charges will now go up from £50 to either £66 without water or £76 with water. Chair of the public health committee Stephen Williams said: "We’ve tried to make the process as open as possible and to listen to all the viewpoints."
# International, Rent, Repairs.Breaking down California's Proposition 33, which could expand rent control
CBS News (No paywall)California voters are weighing whether to approve Proposition 33, which would greatly expand the control local government has over residential rents, allowing cities to cap prices for tenants.
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/video/breaking-down-californi…
# Video International, Rent.Britain’s broken housing system means living inside a sick joke
Eloise Hendy The Independent (No paywall)A fortnight ago, my partner and I asked to renew our tenancy. In reply, the property manager prompted us to “confirm” how much more rent we could “comfortably afford” – because, of course, tenants must be responsible for fluctuations in the housing market, and costs must be passed on to them. We said that there was no increase we could “comfortably afford”, and now we’re waiting – to see if we can stay, or if we’ll be priced out. Anyone whose home life touches the sharp edges of the housing crisis is probably intimately familiar with this kind of waiting, because the experience of dealing with both precarious labour and insecure housing is so unsteady. Unable to plan for the future, you become trapped in the present. You feel a bit like a duck moving its legs underwater, staying still but only through constant effort.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/britain-housing-rent-la…
# Must read International, Rent.The worrying trend of landlords banning tenants from working from home
Emma Guinness The Independent (Soft Paywall)Landlords have come under fire for banning prospective tenants from working from home, resulting in calls for new legislation to protect renters. In what appears to be a new trend, adverts for shared homes have been appearing, specifying that the potential new occupant must not work from home.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/landlord-housing…
# Hot topic, Video International, Rent.