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
Modernising Consumer Protection in Renting: From Individualised to Systemic Protections
Leo Patterson Ross Parity (No paywall)Over the last 50 years, tenancy acts have been directed by the results of the national inquiry conducted by Ron Sackville as part of the Whitlam poverty inquiries. The recommendations of that inquiry built on previous attempts to carve out protections from the common law and balance the individual interests of a renter and a landlord. What will drive reform in the coming years and decades? I believe it needs to be a shift to protection and regulatory design at the systemic level.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/modernising-consumer-protection-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Landlords and agents, Renting culture.A call to arms for architects and planners: We must refurbish public housing, not knock it down
Alistair Sisson The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Last week, contractors began the demolition of Sydney’s Arncliffe estate, a 1940s public housing scheme of 140 apartments across multiple three-storey double-brick walk-ups. Most of the estate’s residents were relocated before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia. Other than being used during lockdowns as emergency accommodation, the homes have now sat empty for several years.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/a-call-to-arms-fo…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development.Sydney renter receives no-grounds eviction notice after requesting shower rail under NDIS plan
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Somehow, Karen Thorne knew she was about to be evicted.
She had been seeking repairs to the air conditioner in her home in Rosemeadow, Sydney, since 2020. A technician told her back then it was a quick fix, but she shouldn’t use it until he had got the sign off from the real estate agent to fix it.
He never came back.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/21/renter-ev…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Campaigns and law reform, Disability, No-grounds evictions, State Government.The French solution for Sydney’s apartment blocks
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Housing blocks from the 1960s and ’70s, like Sydney’s Waterloo Estate, could be extended and upgraded to last another 50 years at a third of the cost of a knockdown-rebuild, say Pritzker Prize-winning architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal.
And it can be done without moving tenants out, the French architects said this week during a visit to Sydney University.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-french-solution-for-sydn…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development, State Government.Walgett Aboriginal elders demand housing help 18 months after men's homeless shelter demolished
Kenji Sato ABC (No paywall)Aboriginal elders in Walgett are demanding more housing support from the state government more than a year after the town's only men's shelter was demolished.
The NSW government bulldozed Namoi House in January last year to make way for domestic violence units, but construction ground to a halt due to a budget blowout.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-17/walgett-shelter-demolishe…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, State Government.Elderly residents face rental battle after being told to vacate Shoal Bay aged care homes
Romy Stephens ABC (No paywall)A pair of elderly men are battling soaring rents in their search for somewhere to live, after being told to vacate their homes in less than three months.
Gary Buckingham and Donald Williams, who live at the Harbourside Haven Gardens Residential Aged Care Home at Shoal Bay, are among five men who have been told to vacate the facility by October 13.
The men are residential tenants and do not receive high care.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-02/aged-care-residents-face-…
# NSW, Eviction, No-grounds evictions, Older people.Own Goal? Thinking about the impact of the FIFA Women’s Cup on rental housing
Rita Wilkinson (No paywall)FIFA Downunder is just a day away as the 2023 Women’s World Cup Finals are played across nine cities in Australia and New Zealand over July and August. Sydney will host one of two opening games, and will host five final games including THE final The FIFA World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in Australia since the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It is truly a mega-event, and a really exciting opportunity to showcase football in Australia.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/own-goal-thinking-about-impact-f…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Housing affordability, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Pensioners face eviction from caravan park after developer purchase
A Current Affair Staff A Current Affair (No paywall)A group of Australian pensioners are fighting to keep their homes at a New South Wales caravan park after a property developer purchased the land six years ago and has since tried to evict them from their houses.
Woronora Village Tourist Park residents Allan Graham, Ray, Alice and Kenny have called the riverside property, which offers campsites and cabins in Sydney's south, their home for 30 years.
The residents all own their homes but lease the land in the flood-prone park.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/nsw-pensioners-face-ev…
# NSW, Eviction, Land lease communities, Older people.