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 Observer view on the cost of living crisis
Observer Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Cabinet ministers’ glib shortcuts are dire response to economic crisis ... The UK has never built enough housing without significant public sector investment into social housing; yet social housebuilding levels have dropped dramatically since the 1980s, leaving the social housing stock to dwindle as a result of demolitions and the right to buy. This has pushed more and more people who have little hope of ever buying their own home into an overpriced private rented sector. Britain urgently needs a programme of public investment in housebuilding to create more affordable homes for rent.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/01/observer-v…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Could housing co-ops help solve the current affordability crisis?
Hilary Harper ABC (No paywall)Denmark, Sweden and Norway all use some form of co-operative housing to make sure their populations are housed appropriately. We find out what could be adapted from those systems to help address the housing needs of Australians, without disrupting the current model of residential property investment as a way of building wealth. (ABC Life Matters)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/could-…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, International.Queensland’s rental crisis spreads to manufactured home parks
Eden Gillspie The Guardian (No paywall)When Betty Blythe bought into a manufactured home park, she had no idea that years later she’d been cutting back on groceries and scrapping her home insurance due to increases in rent. While she owns her home in southern Queensland, Blythe leases the land from the park owner, with rent going towards shared facilities and utilities. Her rent is now $31 a week more than what it was four years ago, and Blythe said as a pensioner every cent counts.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/03/queenslan…
# Australia, Land lease communities.‘It’s shown me how independent I can be’ – housing designed for people with disabilities reduces the help needed
Jacinta Douglas and Di Winkler The Conversation (No paywall)The federal government has been warning that the rising cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is unsustainable. More than a third of NDIS funding is spent on in-house support provided to 5% of NDIS participants with the highest needs. ... Well-designed homes that foster more independent living and increase community connection can potentially reduce support costs and the need for younger people to live in aged care.
https://theconversation.com/its-shown-me-how-independent-i-can-b…
# Australia, Disability, Housing market, Young people.Extending Right to Buy ‘hare-brained idea’, says Shelter boss
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Over the weekend, The Telegraph reported that prime minister Boris Johnson plans to revive the Right to Buy scheme, which allows social housing tenants to buy their homes at a discount rate. The scheme was first introduced by Margaret Thatcher for council tenants in the 1980s. By 1997, more than 1,700,000 homes in the UK had been sold under the Right the Buy. According to Shelter, only 5% of the social housing sold under the Right to Buy has been replaced. Ms Neate [Shelter boss] said there “could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes” as the current cost of living crisis means “more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/extending-right-to-buy…
# International, Public and community housing, Home ownership, Housing market.One-size-fits-all model of accessible housing ‘a disaster’ for Australians with disability
Calla Wahlquist The Guardian (No paywall)Elijah Armstrong’s wheelchair is 76cm wide. The doorways at the rental home he shares with his family are 78cm wide. ... accessible housing for families is in short supply, so [his mother, Grace Dlabik] has made the best of what is available on the private rental market. They moved into their current home, a large art deco house in the Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale, in September. Dlabik found it during a daily scour of realestate.com.au, after spending a year searching for an accessible property.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/04/one-size-…
# Australia, Rent, Disability, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Personal stories.Thousands call for homeless help, but phones ring out as staff are swamped
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Half of all calls for homelessness help went unanswered in Victoria in January, and experts say no new permanent support staff have been funded in the past decade despite a three-fold increase in after-hours demand.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/thousands-call-for-home…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, State Government.With interest rates about to start rising, experts estimate almost 300,000 mortgage borrowers are at serious risk of default
Nassim Khadem ABC (No paywall)Tara Higginson pulls no punches when asked what will happen if interest rates rise on Tuesday, off the back of soaring inflation. "I'm up shit creek", says the single mother of four who, in the midst of the pandemic, took out an interest-only variable loan of $510,000 – more than six times her income. "I don't have a second income to be able to buffer that fluctuation when it [interest rates] increase," she says. "There would have to be cutbacks."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-02/borrowers-home-loans-mort…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Personal stories, Women.