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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
‘A shrinking resource’: Report highlights scarcity of social housing
Lucy Cormack The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)A nationwide scarcity of social housing means that some applicants can expect to wait more than 10 years for a home in most parts of Sydney. A study by the UNSW City Futures Research Centre has revealed a 42 per cent drop in the number of households allocated social housing in the past three decades. Meanwhile, the number of applicants with the greatest need has soared by almost 50 per cent in the three years to 2021. ... An increasing number of people with the most urgent need for housing, exacerbated by the pandemic, means a family with less severe needs can expect to wait more than ten years for a three-bedroom property in most parts of Sydney. “Once upon a time jumping from public housing to ownership was possible for thousands of people every year. Today that is almost non-existent,” said report lead author UNSW Professor Hal Pawson.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/a-shrinking-resource-report-…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market, State Government.Families in homes built since 2010 had a worse experience of lockdown. This should be a concern for policymakers
Sandra Costa Santos Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Families in post-2010 homes are more likely to be dissatisfied with home size, space for play and family time, storage and indoor air quality, research by Newcastle and Dundee universities shows. This made lockdown harder. If the UK’s housing stock fell short of meeting everyday family needs before the pandemic, the COVID-19 lockdown only made this worse. Lockdown forced most families to introduce new activities to their home, increasing parent-child conflict. Space became currency for well-being, either heightening tensions or mitigating against conflicts through its ability to adapt to multiplying needs. Despite the idea that we were ‘all in it together’, lockdown exposed pre-existing inequalities.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/families-in-home…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market.Pet refuges overrun as dog and cat owners forced to surrender beloved animals to rent properties
Tabarak Al Jrood ABC (No paywall)WA's largest animal shelters are being inundated with pets being surrendered by owners unable to secure affordable rental properties willing to accommodate them. The Dogs' Refuge Home in the western Perth suburb of Shenton Park normally receives three surrendered dogs each day, on top of regional arrivals and their intake from local pounds. Dogs' Refuge Home spokeswoman Robyn Slater said that had spiked to 30 surrender requests a week. "Some people are having trouble finding housing, and especially housing that's going to accommodate a pet or multiple pets," she said. "It can be really sad because these people do love their animals, but they're in a position where they're going to be homeless if they don't say yes to a rental … and that means that they have to surrender their pet." ... RSPCA WA chief executive Ben Cave recommended the state amend its tenancy laws to match Victoria and the ACT, to allow more pet-friendly properties onto the market.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-28/wa-pet-surrenders-skyrock…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Pets.‘They’re held over a barrel’: in the overheated rental market, tenant vetting can go too far
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)What is your marital status? Can you provide a police check? Do you own a lawnmower? These are some of the questions prospective tenants are being asked as they try to secure housing in the midst of Australia’s rental crisis. Guardian Australia has seen several examples of rental application forms requesting police and credit checks – which can require applicants to spend at least $65 – merely to be considered eligible to apply for a property. While applicants are not required by law to divulge such information to secure a lease, agencies often state they will not accept applications without these details. ... Jemima Mowbray from the NSW Tenants’ Union says the amount of personal information being requested by real estate agents was “overkill”. “From the industry’s perspective, they may feel this is a valid way of testing financial risk, but for everyone else it’s really intrusive and in many, if not most instances, absolutely unnecessary,” Mowbray said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/29/theyre-he…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Privacy and access, Rent.Fundraising for housing: the rental crisis pushing some to the brink
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Soaring rents across Australia are hitting renters hard, with widespread competition for a dwindling amount of safe and affordable homes. This tight rental market is pushing some lower-income people into precarious housing or homelessness. Inequality reporter Stephanie Convery explores the power imbalance in the rental market, and what the Labor government could do to improve affordability and renters’ rights
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2022/may/30/fun…
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.Single mothers hope Anthony Albanese’s upbringing might spur change
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)It’s late on Saturday night and a jubilant Anthony Albanese is on stage at an RSL club in Sydney’s inner west with a message for families like Leilani Sinclair’s. “It says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mum who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown, can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister,” he says, emotion etched on his face. Meanwhile, Sinclair is in Canberra with her two boys, settling into a new home on the outskirts of the capital, about 20 minutes’ drive from parliament house. Like Maryanne Albanese, Sinclair is a single mother. Her sons are 12 and eight. She moved into public housing in Canberra this month after two years in crisis accommodation and four long years on the waiting list. Sinclair hopes her boys will have options. ... As Albanese concluded his speech on Saturday, he turned back to families like Sinclair’s. “I hope there are families in public housing watching this tonight,” he said. “Because I want every parent to be able to tell their child, ‘No matter where you live or where you come from, in Australia the doors of opportunity are open to us all.’” Sinclair heard the new prime minister’s message loud and clear. She will soon learn if Albanese has heard hers.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/28/single-mo…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Families.Metres from millionaires row, homelessness crisis worsens on Mornington Peninsula
Benjamin Preiss The Age (Paywall)A short drive from some of Victoria’s most expensive seaside real estate on the Mornington Peninsula there are rough sleepers staying long term in tents in the foreshore campgrounds. Homelessness has become so dire on the peninsula that the council has allowed some rough sleepers to move into the camping grounds that are often prized summer holiday spots. But many more are couch-surfing, sleeping in cars or living in rooming houses. Ben Smith, manager of the Mornington Community, Information and Support Centre, says the growing use of its free shower service is another sign that homelessness is rising in the area. ... [And] soaring rents and house prices were the biggest causes of homelessness in the region, with landlords often raising rents to make the most of their investments, particularly after buying a new property.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/metres-from-milliona…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness.Renters are facing eviction as the National Rental Affordability Scheme winds up
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)Tanya Bluett can't stop crying. The 62-year-old is about to be evicted from her home of nine years. "I believed I was here 'til the day I died," Ms Bluett said. "I've put so much effort into this, and so much love into the way I've done my garden … the children see this as Nanna's home." Her home, which she shares with her grandson, was built as part of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). But the federally-funded scheme is being wound up in 2026. Ms Bluett's unit in the northern Tasmanian town of Perth is due to be sold, along with five others in the same cul-de-sac. ... There has been criticism that NRAS has been a windfall for private developers and that the subsidies were higher than they needed to be. "It gave too much away to those private for profit investors in it, it asked far too little of them in return," Chris Martin, a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales' City Futures Research Centre, said. Mr Martin said the wind up of NRAS had exposed a massive shortage of affordable homes across the country. "The latest estimate is that we need in the order of about 700,000 properties, additional properties to meet the need of low and moderate income households going out to 2035." He said the end of NRAS also highlighted the brutal nature of eviction. "It's a problem that is invisible."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-28/renters-eviction-tasmania…
# Australia, Eviction, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Landlords and agents.