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
Smoking and social housing: Supporting residents, addressing inequalities
Action on Smoking and Health and the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This joint report by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) outlines the case for reducing rates of smoking in the social housing sector and the action needed to achieve this. The report is the product of collaboration between the public health and social housing sectors and aims to equip both sectors with the information required to progress action on smoking and improve the support available to people who smoke and live in social housing. The report also identifies Improvements that could be made at a national level which would better support local action on this important issue.
# International, Public and community housing, Health.Rent control: principles, practicalities and international experience
Ken Gibb and Alex Marsh (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This short briefing paper provides examples of the range of contemporary international rent control or rent regulation practice as operated in the private rented sector (PRS), highlighting a small number of European examples in a little more detail. The paper considers and reflects on the evaluative criteria used to assess and appraise these policies, and reflect on what this means for the Scottish debate on an effective national rent control policy. This is a revised version of a briefing prepared at the request of the Scottish Government in January 2022, in relation to their ongoing work aimed at ‘introducing a national effective system of rent control’. Read the original full report entitled: 'Rent control: A review of the evidence base' (23 February 2022) at: [https://housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/220215-Rent-control-web-ready.pdf].
# International, Rent, Housing market.PM, your plan to fix housing crisis should reach for the stars
Kate Colvin The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Anthony Albanese’s journey from social housing to The Lodge demonstrates that a secure home is not a safety net, it’s a ladder to stability, opportunity and prosperity. The PM is right to hope his story inspires others. But we should also recognise that story is less likely today. Right now, only 4 per cent of our national housing stock is social housing, compared with 6 per cent when Anthony Albanese was a child. Many Australian families are struggling to stave off the threat of homelessness and housing stress, rather than reaching for the stars.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pm-your-plan-to-fix-hous…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Women.Down and Out by Daniel Lavelle review – a howl of fury about homelessness
Fiona Sturges The Guardian (No paywall)Book of the day from the United Kingdom ... Daniel Lavelle knows how the story of his homelessness might look to the casual observer. Viewed in isolation, he notes, “the circumstances that precipitated my journey to the streets seem entirely of my own making”. As well as racking up considerable rent arrears, he had been drinking heavily, lost a series of low-paid jobs and moved out of his flat voluntarily. But, as we learn in his candid yet resolutely un-self-pitying memoir, there were complicating factors, among them his ADHD (his psychiatrist said his was the most severe case he’d ever seen), long spells in foster care and children’s homes, and multiple exclusions from school. Add to that the rise of zero-hours contracts, soaring rents, and the cuts to welfare and social care implemented during the coalition government’s austerity programme, and it becomes grimly apparent how a man like Lavelle can slip through the cracks.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/27/down-and-out-by-da…
# International, Homelessness.Two-hour prefab kit from the ’50s transformed into modern home
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Long before Ikea, Nissen huts were the original flat-pack. Skinned in corrugated iron, and assembled in as little as two hours as temporary housing or army barracks, they ended as permanent homes to for migrants and miners living in communities dubbed silver cities and pommy towns. ... Aged care worker Rosemary Roberts grew up in a 90-square-metre Nissen hut near Newcastle that has been extended and restored by Sydney Living Museums. It will go on the open market for sale by July. ... The newly renovated home is full of light, has an unobstructed view of the sea, and a new wing with a master bedroom suite with an ensuite and walk-in robe.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/two-hour-prefab-kit-from-the…
# History NSW, Housing market.Wollongong rental price shock: 'Am I living in Sydney?'
Tareyn Varley Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)Bulli renter Tahlia Roza has begun packing her belongings into boxes but she has no idea where they'll end up. The lease has expired on the little one-bedroom, $265-a-week unit in Bulli she's called home for the past two years and the owner has decided not to renew it. ... Amid a critical shortage of rental properties in the Illawarra, she's been given 30 days to vacate the premises. "It kind of feels pointless, I'm packing up my house and I'm packing up my life but I don't have a plan of where to go from here, so it's really stressful," the 34-year-old divorcee said.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7758776/wollongong-ren…
# NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW, Women.How much your landlord can increase your rent
Tom Watson (No paywall)Soaring rents are making it harder for Aussies to make ends meet, with some tenants finding themselves forced out before the end of their lease. "Housing is eating up a substantial amount of people's income each week and it's making it really hard for people to cover off all the basic necessities in life," says policy and advocacy manager at the Tenants' Union of New South Wales, Jemima Mowbray. In recent months Mowbray says the Union has been contacted by a number of people struggling with the cost of rent, many of whom have been whacked by significant rent increases. ... Joel Dignam, executive director of tenant advocacy group Better Renting, says that the real issue is the lack of protection afforded to renters around the actual scale of increases. "People think that there might be a fixed percentage limit or a dollar limit, but these things don't exist. It's basically whatever goes," he says.
https://www.moneymag.com.au/how-much-your-landlord-can-increase-…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents, State Government.Repayment shock on horizon for mortgage-holders as economy grows
Shane Wright and Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Home buyers are being warned to prepare for “repayment shock” as rising inflation pressures force the Reserve Bank to consider delivering the largest one-off interest rate rise in two decades amid signs the economy is being buoyed by increasingly profitable businesses. ... The bank is expected to lift rates by at least 0.25 percentage points at its meeting next Tuesday with financial markets and some economists tipping a 0.4 percentage point jump. Such an increase would be the largest one-month lift since it pushed up rates by half a percentage point in early 2000.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/repayment-shock-on-horiz…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.