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
The dream and nightmares of council estates
The Economist The Economist (Paywall)This book measures 25cm by 21cm. It is elegantly designed, with beautiful photographs printed on hefty paper. The publisher is the Royal Institute of British Architects, which also produces books such as “Inspired by Light” and “The New Country: City Style for Rural Living”. It even smells nice. It is a lovely book on the distinctly unglamorous subject of British council estates.
And why not? At the peak, in 1981, fully 32% of English people lived in social rented accommodation—mostly in the form of houses and flats built by local councils. Even today, after four decades of mass council-home sales and very limited new building, they shape millions of people’s lives.
https://www.economist.com/culture/2022/12/01/the-dream-and-night…
# International, Public and community housing, History.Renters forced to pay hundreds in ‘unethical’ fees to secure homes
Shanti Das The Guardian (No paywall)Letting agencies are earning thousands of pounds in commission and in some cases flouting the ban on tenant fees by forcing renters to sign up to controversial “zero deposit” schemes.
An Observer investigation has uncovered evidence of pressure-selling tactics by some agencies in England, including cases where people were told they were required to sign up as a condition of securing a tenancy.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/03/renters-forced-to-…
# International, Landlords and agents.The high cost of housing is a UC-created crisis
Matthew Tauzer SF Examiner (No paywall)We are now entering our third week of the largest strike in the nation — a strike that has all but shuttered the Universtiy of California’s 10 campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. All of the 30,000-plus workers who are walking picket lines have their own stories as to what brought them to this place. But overall, issues of equity, decent compensation and housing affordability have animated the effort.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/our_sections/forum/the-high-cost-of-h…
# International, Housing affordability, Students.‘Housing First’ Pilot Launched in New York City
James Brasuell Planetizen (No paywall)The city has started small with a “Housing First” approach to homelessness—moving 80 people experiencing homelessness into supportive housing in recent months.
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/11/119989-housing-first-pil…
# International, Eviction, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Human rights.‘A landlord’s market’: Little relief for renters amid tight vacancy rate
Kate Burke The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Tenants across Australia are struggling to find a place to call home, let alone an affordable property, as rental vacancy rates languish at record lows, new figures show.
The national rental vacancy rate held at a record low of 0.8 per cent last month, down from 1.5 per cent the previous November, Domain data shows, pushing up competition for available properties.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/a-landlord-s-market-little-…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.Push to convert thousands of CBD parking spots into green space
Cara Waters The Age (No paywall)Ten thousand parking spots in Melbourne’s CBD would be turned into green spaces under a plan by RMIT researchers who say replacing asphalt with trees could bring people back to the city and kick-start its post-COVID recovery.
The research, published in the journal npj Urban Sustainability on Wednesday, found that if the City of Melbourne converted on-street parking spots into green space it would deliver enough tree canopy to cover 30 MCGs and would help protect the city from flooding and heatwaves.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/push-to-convert-thou…
# Australia, Climate change, Planning and development.Lismore flood victims in grip of housing crisis still as report urges change to cope with disasters
Bruce MacKenzie ABC (No paywall)Kerry Storton reckons she has slept in 20 different beds since her house at Wardell was damaged in the floods that ravaged the Northern Rivers region almost nine months ago.
"I live out of tubs," she said.
"I've stayed with five sets of friends and I've had something like 20 different beds (if I include) house sitting and weekends away."
Read more on the report covered in this article: https://www.tenants.org.au/news/research-northern-rivers-floods-expose-flaws-nsw-housing-system
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-24/lismore-flood-rental-hous…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, Housing affordability.Tenancy advice requests quadruple in Community Legal Centres
Francisco Silva Law Society Journal (No paywall)Inflation and low tenancy rates are driving up rental prices across the state, causing many to seek help and advice from their local legal centres.
With the rental crisis hitting most suburbs in NSW, local legal centres are seeing a steep rise in enquiries and requests for help from tenants facing prohibitive rent increases. According to industry analysts, rents rose over an average of 10 per cent in the past year, with some suburbs registering increases of up to 30 per cent. It’s a case of a perfect storm, partially driven by some of the lowest vacancy rates on record but also by pressure from higher interest rates and inflation.
https://lsj.com.au/articles/tenancy-advice-requests-quadruple-in…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Campaigns and law reform, Community Legal Centres, No-grounds evictions, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services.