ADVICE OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD
Tenants Advice & Advocacy Services have limited availability over the holiday period. The Tenants' Union will operate a Tenancy Advice Hotline from Wednesday 18/12/2024 until Wednesday 8/1/2025 (excluding weekends and public holidays). The hours of operation are 10am-1pm and 2-5pm.
Get advice on: (02) 8117 3750 or 1800 251 101
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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
More California cities enact rent control to protect tenants, upsetting apartment owners
Summer Lin (No paywall)From Los Angeles ... When Bell Gardens resident Monchis Curiel got a notice last year from her landlord that rent for her three-bedroom apartment would more than double the next day — from $1,200 a month to $2,500 — she was shocked. Curiel, 47, has lived in the city for more than three decades and knew her landlord was required to give at least 60 days’ notice for such a large increase. She decided to fight the move in court and won. And because her landlord didn’t want to pay the relocation fees under Los Angeles County’s rent stabilization ordinance, Curiel was offered a one-year lease at her original rent. Curiel, a single mother of four who earns about $14,000 annually, said that if she hadn’t known her rights as a tenant, she would’ve been forced to move out. “I would’ve separated my kids from my family. They would’ve gone to their father, and I would probably be sleeping in a car,” she said. “What I cared about is that my kids had a roof.” ... On Aug. 22, the City Council voted unanimously to advance a rent stabilization ordinance that would limit annual rent increases to 50% of the local consumer price index, capping the hike at 4% even if the inflation rate is higher. Rent control has long been a tool to protect people from being priced out of their homes. But with California’s rents rising amid a hot real estate market, more cities are turning to the protections. This has won praise from tenant groups and opposition from apartment owners’ organizations, which have been critical of the Bell Gardens plan. (Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-28/more-califor…
# International, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Census of Population and Housing - Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
Australian Bureau of Statistics (No paywall)The 2021 Census marks 50 years since the 1971 Census – the first Census to include all Australians following the 1967 Referendum. The 1967 Referendum changed the Constitution to allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be included in official Census population counts. In 1971, 115,993 people identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in the Census. In 2021, that number grew to 812,728 people.
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-s…
# Australia, Race and ethnicity.Ratepayers slam Bendigo council’s plan to evict Huntly campers as housing service stays silent
Fiona Parker, Jo Printz and Tyrone Dalton ABC (No paywall)A Victorian council is facing backlash from ratepayers who say they feel "ashamed" by its plan to evict long-term campers from a public park. The City of Greater Bendigo gave residents 14 days' notice on Monday to pack up and leave Huntly Lions Park, saying it would use enforcement action to remove them from Sunday, September 11. Social justice lawyers have labelled the move a potential breach of the Charter of Human Rights.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/ratepayers-criticise-bend…
# Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities, Homelessness, Housing market, Long-term tenant, Planning and development, State Government.NSW public housing body tackles homes mismatch
Michael Bleby (Paywall)NSW is using its 3000-dwelling Waterloo South project to tackle an imbalance that has left the state social housing landlord with bigger homes than it needs. Newly appointed Land and Housing Corporation chief executive Simon Newport said the project, with a $1.7 billion development currently out to tender, was a critical part of refreshing a public housing stock that does not reflect current community needs. “There’s a mismatch between what our current stock looks like and what our stock needs to be,” Mr Newport told The Australian Financial Review. “Our stock is heavily weighted to three-bedroom, one-bathroom houses. But 78 per
cent of people on the wait list for homes are needing one- or two-bedroom homes.”
https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/nsw-public-housing-body-…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal.New homes in Sydney show one-star energy efficiency improvement over 11 years
Natassia Chrysanthos, Nigel Gladstone and Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)New homes across Sydney have improved their average energy efficiency by just one star in more than a decade, meaning developers will have to make the same-sized jump within 14 months if they are to comply with new building standards aimed at driving down emissions.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/new-homes-in-sydney-show-one…
# NSW, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Local Government, Sydney.Fears caravan park residents could be left homeless if NSW Flood Inquiry recommendation is implemented
Luisa Rubbo and Emma Rennie ABC (No paywall)Without his permanent home at a caravan park south of Port Macquarie, Frank Ellul and his wife would have "nowhere else to go". The Brigadoon Holiday Park resident has been slowly rebuilding after the park flooded in March last year and would rather stay and rebuild if it happened again. "Where else can we get affordable rent? There's nowhere," Mr Ellul said.
"We're on the last of our money. We can't do nothing but sit and hope nothing happens." ... The future for residents such as Mr Ellul is uncertain after the NSW government has agreed in principle with a recommendation from the 2022 NSW Flood Inquiry that "permanent residency in caravan parks … situated below the risk-based flood planning level" be prohibited.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/caravan-park-residents-ba…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Regional NSW.Homelessness prevention studios are providing a circuit-breaker for teenagers and their carers
Bethanie Alderon ABC (No paywall)A studio designed to reduce the risk of family tension and prevent young people from becoming homeless has been built in the backyard of a family's home in the Barossa Valley. The state government recently provided $2.4 million to non-for-profit charity organisation Kids Under Cover to fund 70 per cent of the cost of the first 51 youth homelessness prevention studios, including the first one built in the Barossa Valley this week. Philanthropic organisation Foundation Barossa partnered with Kids Under Cover to set up the studio in the backyard of a family's home in Nuriootpa. The foundation established its Homburg Homelessness Prevention Fund back in 2020, when it was found that up to 50 young people in the Barossa Valley were sleeping in cars or couch surfing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-02/studios-providing-circuit…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Young people.Build-to rent sector gathers pace to help ease housing crisis
Tim Boreham The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The trickle of build-to-rent (BTR) developments is turning into a stampede as a deep-pocketed foreign backers outline their expansion plans in the nascent sector. The New York-based Sentinel Real Estate Corporation’s local arm last week unveiled plans for up to $1.5 billion of local BTR projects, in partnership with Dutch pension fund manager PGGM. Sentinel’s third local venture to date – a 168-unit site called The Briscoe in Roden Street, West Melbourne – this week reached “topping out” stage. Also, read Nicole Lindsay's article entitled: 'Lowy family-backed Assembly bags EVO as build-to-rent momentum gains' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/lowy-family-backed-assembly-bags-evo-as-build-to-rent-momentum-gains-20220901-p5belf.html].
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/build-to-rent-sector-g…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.