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
Housing is unaffordable for many even though supply is growing
Kasey Chambers Canberra Times (No paywall)It's been a grim start to the year for Australians in housing stress. Already we've had news that thousands of affordable rentals will be wiped from the market, that rents are surging, and that our population is growing much faster than the rate we're building social housing. This news is playing into a housing market that has never been less affordable or more volatile. Australians are spending record amounts on housing, and more and more people are being plunged into housing stress.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8046397/how-is-it-that-su…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness.Kalgoorlie council reluctantly supports $3 million workers' accommodation camp amid housing shortage
Andrew Chounding ABC (No paywall)A proposed 60-bed workers' camp to be built in the City of Kalgoorlie has been referred to an independent assessment panel, rather than face the scrutiny of the local council. At this week's ordinary council meeting, councillors voted unanimously to send the proposed $3 million development to the Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel (DAP).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-25/kalgoorlie-workers-accomm…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Work, employment.‘Holding cell’: Melbourne family with disabled son stuck in ‘transitional’ housing for a decade
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)When Rosalie Dow moved into transitional housing in Melbourne with her two young children in 2013, she thought it would only be for a few months. Dow’s son, Mayer, was two, and showing signs of what would soon be diagnosed as Coffin-Lowry syndrome, a rare and often debilitating genetic condition with complications including intellectual disability, seizures, hearing impairment, sensory and behavioural issues, and an inability to walk.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/28/holding-c…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Disability, Families, Human rights.Teen with autism forced to live in Bunbury hospital for more than three months after NDIS property eviction
Georgia Loney ABC (No paywall)A 17-year-old boy with autism spent 99 days in a country hospital after he was evicted from supported accommodation as a result of complaints about damage from the landlord and neighbours.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-26/marley-omeara-autism-ndis…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Disability, Young people.Renting in Victoria: Why there is no cooling standard for rental properties
Scott Carbines news.com.au (No paywall)Calls for compulsory cooling to be included in Victoria’s minimum standards for rental properties are once again being made as the state swelters through a hot summer. Rental properties must include heating in the main living area under the legislated requirements implemented over the past few years — but there is no requirement for cooling.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/melbourne-vic/rentin…
# Hot topic Australia, Climate change, Health, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Families are falling short, even with federal government rental assistance
Emma D'Agostino ABC (No paywall)A national coalition of welfare organisations has called on the federal government to increase rent assistance payments by at least 50 per cent as well as expand the eligibility criteria, as more Australians seek financial assistance to pay for housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-30/families-falling-short-ev…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Families, Welfare.Wealthy Switzerland is a country of tenants
Simon Thönen, Swiss Review Swiss Info (No paywall)[Switzerland] The majority of people in Switzerland live in rented accommodation. This is unique compared with other European countries. Its implications affect our everyday lives, the environment, politics, and – it goes without saying – the rights of tenants. But not always in the way we would expect.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/wealthy-switzerland-is-a-country-of…
# International, Climate change, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Renting culture.Family 'priced out' of south-west Sydney rental market, as finding affordable homes 'near-impossible'
Heath Parkes-Hupton ABC (No paywall)A Sydney mother says she had no option but to move her family into a "stinking-hot" caravan after being forced to leave the rental home she had lived in for 16 years. Linda Thompson and her two daughters were told they had to move out of the house in Bradbury in the midst of an ongoing dispute with the landlord and real estate just before Christmas.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-28/family-living-in-caravan-…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Families, Homelessness, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.