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
Regional renters’ lives are about to get harder still. Here’s a fix
Brendan Coates and Joey Moloney The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)For a long time, Australia’s housing affordability crisis was mostly seen as a problem for city dwellers. But since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional renters have also been feeling the pain.
Across regional Australia, vacancy rates are at record lows and asking rents have surged 12.5 per cent over the past year. Shocking stories abound of people in regional areas, including many who have jobs, sleeping in caravans, tents or even their cars because they can’t find a home they can afford to rent.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/regional-renters-lives-are-about…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability.Imperfect match: Australian renters in the dark over use of data by tech company Snug
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Exclusive: Snug gives renters a score based on their profile that is meant to match them to properties, but critics say the process is opaque and skirts the law on rental bidding.
One of Australia’s fastest growing rental application platforms is using renters’ data in obscure and potentially discriminatory ways to “score” their applications against rental properties, and gives them a higher score when they offer to pay more rent, a Guardian Australia investigation has found.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/17/imperfect…
# Hot topic Australia, Privacy and access, Tenant databases.‘Do we just make a tent city?’: the councils grappling with an influx of homeless Australians
Jordyn Beazley The Guardian (No paywall)Some authorities are evicting campers from public land; others are installing temporary facilities. But all say current solutions are not tenable long-term
There are only three residents left in Huntly Lions Park, a campground just north of Bendigo’s city centre. In August, the council rezoned the land and told everyone living there in tents and caravans they had 14 days to leave.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/20/do-we-jus…
# Australia, Public and community housing.‘Ruined my life’: Renters like April are flood disaster’s forgotten victims
Sophie Aubrey The Age (No paywall)Single mother April Bedeau is in tears as she comes off another heartbreaking call from her 10-year-old son at school: “I just want to go home, Mum,” he pleads.
Ever since the Maribyrnong River’s flooded waters invaded her rented two-bedroom unit of 14 years on October 14 and destroyed their belongings, Bedeau and son Sebastian ricocheted around emergency accommodation.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/ruined-my-life-rente…
# Hot topic Australia, Climate change.Court rules landlord was not allowed to convert one-bedroom Adelaide apartment into five
Eugene Boisvert ABC (No paywall)A court has found a landlord broke the law by converting a one-bedroom apartment into a five-bedroom one in Adelaide.
The District Court found Si Ren, of Seaford in Melbourne, converted the 82-square-metre apartment in the Mansions on Pulteney building in the Adelaide CBD into a five-bedroom apartment without getting permission from the strata corporation that runs the building.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-17/landlord-not-allowed-to-c…
# Australia, Security and safety, Share houses, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Planning and development.This draft prospect grew up in public housing. Now it’s being knocked down, he’s not happy
Carla Jaeger The Age (No paywall)Community is a big part of AFL draft prospect Charlie Clarke’s life.
He grew up in Port Melbourne community housing, is the son of the local footy team’s “cult figure” and at his matches, as many as 40 locals come along just to cheer him on.
“Whether it’s down the street or in passing, they’re always asking about Charlie,” his dad Jason said. “The whole community is behind him, from the local footy club to the older generation at the local bowls club. That’s pretty special.”
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/they-re-always-asking-about-…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Many private landlords in the UK lack the knowledge, skills and support needed to provide decent homes for renters
University of Glasgow Phys.org (No paywall)Many private landlords lack the knowledge, skills and support needed to provide decent homes for renters, a new study has found.
The U.K. Collaborative Center for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) study, by Dr. Jennifer Harris and Professor Alex Marsh at the University of Bristol, is based on a survey carried out with more than 1,000 landlords and on 68 in-depth interviews with landlords, letting agents and experts. The study covered the whole of the U.K. It adds to the limited body of research that has been carried out from the perspective of landlords.
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-private-landlords-uk-lack-knowledg…
# Research alert International, Eviction, Landlords and agents.A Los Angeles billionaire spent $100m on an election bid. Could it have helped the city’s housing crisis?
Lois Beckett The Guardian (No paywall)Throughout billionaire Rick Caruso’s unsuccessful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles, critics had one question: why was the real estate developer spending $100m on a race focused on homelessness, rather than simply using his wealth to build desperately needed affordable housing?
Experts say the amount spent on the failed campaign would not have been enough to build adequate affordable homes
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/17/los-angeles-bill…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing affordability.