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
Julia grew up on a street where 'everyone knew your name'. But when she told people her address, alarm bells rang
Bridget Judd ABC (No paywall)Julia's street proved the old adage it takes a village to raise a child. So when she reached high school and told her classmates where she lived, she was surprised to be met with three words. "Oh, I'm sorry." Just over 800,000 Australians live in social housing across the country.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-22/australia-stigmatisation-…
# Australia, Public and community housing.A Cage by Another Name
Sasha Plotnikova (No paywall)Under the guise of housing, LA’s tiny home villages serve to contain and banish unhoused people. On a long weekend in October of 2021, I gathered with a small group of people on the hot asphalt of a former access road surrounded by an 8-foot tall fence. We stood among 117 prefabricated sheds that had been installed on the site, each smaller than a 70-square foot (6.5 m2) prison cell—the minimum recommended by the American Correctional Association. Directly to our east was a freeway, and to our west was a park, little-used due to noise and pollution. Over the top of the fence, we could see a hornet’s nest hanging from one of the trees closest to the camp. We were at the open house of a new “Tiny Home Village” in the rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood of Highland Park, funded and built in the summer of 2021 by the City of Los Angeles and operated by Christian nonprofit Hope of the Valley (HOTV). The stated purpose of the sheds was temporary housing for 224 tenants transitioning out of houselessness. (Failed Architecture)
# Must read International, Health, Homelessness, Housing market, Welfare.Design, policy and stigma: Lessons from Australia's golden age of public housing
Jonathan Green ABC (No paywall)For decades public housing in Australia has stood as a symbol of economic disadvantage and social marginalisation, but it wasn't always this way. As Mira Adler-Gillies explains, public housing was once built for working families, using innovative and progressive design principles. Listen to the full report. (Blueprint For Living, ABC Radio National)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving…
# History, Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market.Public housing tenants answer your questions to tackle stigma
Carol Raabus ABC (No paywall)When Nickolas Koutsoudakis lived with his mum in a housing commission property, he didn't feel welcome in some parts of society. [Read on] (ABC Everyday)
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/public-housing-tenants-answer-yo…
# Australia, Public and community housing.At last, we have a chance to fix the housing crisis – and that’s down to Michael Gove
Vicky Spratt (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Standing before a packed room of housing policy experts and journalists at an event hosted by the charity Shelter, the Housing Secretary began to speak. His focus? The urgent need to build more social housing and to tax landowners properly to make sure councils have enough money to fund it. “Even the most – how can I put it – Thatcher-worshiping, home ownership-fetishising, capital-accumulating members of this audience… you want more social housing,” he said. “Because you want people to be in decent homes where they can pursue the jobs that they love and save one day for a home that they might want to call their own.” The words could easily have been spoken by someone on the left, but they came from Michael Gove. (inews.co.uk)
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/at-last-we-have-a-chance-to-fix-the-…
# International, Public and community housing, Housing market, Local Government, Tax.Australia's overheated property market has become a target for hackers — and they're scamming millions
James Purtill ABC (No paywall)The scammers' first email to Kelly and her husband arrived in the small hours of the night, when they were sleeping. "Due to the ongoing bank audit on our account," the email read, "please see attached our subsidiary trust account details for the payment of $25,000 deposit." The email address looked legitimate — it was the real estate agent's. Kelly and her husband, both young engineers and "tech savvy", were at the pointy end of buying a house in Western Australia. ... According to national figures, plenty of others are falling for the scam too. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) Scamwatch receives on average about two reports per week of payment redirection scams in real estate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-04-24/scammers-hackers-…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Hard to escape’: Unbearable heat forces Sydney families out of their homes
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Poor building standards and rising energy costs force 30 per cent of Australians to get out of the house during summer, as hot weather takes an increasing toll on physical and mental health. Low-quality homes that do not offer protection from the heat and poorly planned suburbs without trees and shelter from hot weather leave many Australians to suffer heat distress, even during milder summers. ... More than 2000 people were surveyed between December 2021 and March 2022 by Sweltering Cities. ... The survey found renters were more likely to live in hot homes that lacked airconditioning or proper windows, blinds and insulation. One-third of NSW renters said they had asked their landlord to make changes to cool their homes, yet only 11 per cent agreed. Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said too many homes lacked sufficient protection to maintain safe indoor temperatures – ideally around 18-23 degrees.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hard-to-escape-unbearable-he…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Coming clean on living with a hoarder
Danny Katz The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Once, [my wife] came home with four perfectly good Bentwood dining chairs that she found on a nature strip; she said she almost didn’t see them there because they were hidden behind a half-filled removalist truck.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/two-minu…
# Australia, Home.