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
Fire deaths illustrate terrible consequences of unfair housing system
Jack de Groot The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The deaths of at least three people in a horrific fire at a Newtown boarding house on Tuesday illustrate the terrible consequences that can result from a lack of housing choice. Many older-style boarding houses are places of last resort. The men residing at the Newtown house would likely have had no other accommodation option. A boarding house would have been all they could afford, because there is not enough social and affordable housing in Sydney or in NSW. ... The lack of social and affordable housing is driving people towards living in older-style boarding houses and into other marginal rent arrangements. These include paying to live in a shed or garage, or in illegally cramped accommodation, or any other residence that falls below acceptable standards. This issue doesn’t just affect men. Women aged 55 and over are Australia’s fastest growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness. ... We also need to strengthen the rights of all renters, to provide greater security of tenure, avoid unnecessary evictions, and make sure all renters have access to a fairer process if they are at risk of losing their home. This is particularly true for people living in boarding houses, where there is a much lower bar to evict someone.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fire-deaths-illustrate-terri…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Older people, Women.Rent assistance, grants for flood affected NSW residents welcomed amid 'price gouging' concerns
Jack Needham (No paywall)NSW's peak tenancy group has welcomed government funding for those affected by the devastating flooding in the state, but has issued a warning that further action may be needed to prevent 'price gouging' in the tight rental market. (realestate view)
https://view.com.au/news/vic/rent-assistance-grants-for-flood-af…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.After the flood: Lismore’s future in doubt with 4000 homes uninhabitable
Laura Chung The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)As of March 18, there have been 10,300 damaged buildings, of which 4000 are not habitable. In the Northern Rivers region, which includes the Tweed, Lismore, Ballina region, 3580 buildings are not habitable. The new wave of housing need compounds an already dire situation. ... NCOSS chief executive Joanna Quilty said people were living in sub-standard arrangements and were faced with having to return to unsafe and damaged houses. “Many social housing properties have been impacted and are now uninhabitable. These people are effectively homeless,” she said. “Unfortunately, the immediate measures put in place to get people into rental accommodation are not doing the job because there simply isn’t enough rental stock out there. “We urgently need innovative and urgent solutions to get people into safe and secure housing." Also, read Elias Visontay's article entitled: 'Flood-affected Lismore residents with nowhere to go return to homes deemed uninhabitable' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/20/flood-affected-lismore-residents-with-nowhere-to-go-return-to-homes-deemed-uninhabitable].
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/after-the-floo…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.Incentive payments, higher density urged to make homes affordable
Shane Wrtight The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Housing density around transport hubs in major cities would increase while the federal government would pay the states and local councils to boost supply under contentious proposals aimed at taking pressure off the nation’s property market. In a wide-ranging report focused on supply issues, a federal parliamentary committee headed by Liberal MP Jason Falinski also backed the replacement of stamp duties by land taxes and an overhaul of build-to-rent laws while forcing councils to reform their broad use of developer fees. And despite warnings from the Reserve Bank and other experts, the committee supported a plan to enable first home buyers to use their superannuation as collateral to buy a property. ... Labor members of the committee, however, criticised the overall report, saying that in some areas it was contradictory while others completely ignored expert evidence.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/incentive-payments-highe…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, Tax.Inflation triggered an interest rate rise in the US. That could lead to mortgage shock in Australia
Carrington Clarke and Cameron Schwarz ABC (No paywall)Heather Somerstein moved to Atlanta from New York City three years ago, partly in search of a more affordable lifestyle. It was an unlucky choice for the consultant. The southern city has the highest rate of inflation in the United States, which is itself experiencing the country's worst inflation in decades. "I've never seen anything like it in my life," Heather said. "Prices jumped so high, so fast." ... In many other ways, however, Atlanta is booming.
People are drawn to the city because of its healthy job prospects and strong economic growth. But house prices and rents are soaring.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-17/us-interest-rate-rise/100…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.NT public houses sitting empty for months as waiting list grows
Roz=xanne Fitzgerald ABC (No paywall)Public houses in the Northern Territory are sitting unoccupied for months on end while thousands live in severely overcrowded homes or sleep rough, data suggests. It is taking the NT government an average of 136 days — 86 more than the national average — to process new tenants into affordable, urban social houses, according to the latest federal report on government services. ... Peter McMillan, the executive officer of the Northern Territory's peak housing body NT Shelter, says the wait times — which have seen some languish in limbo for more than eight years — are unacceptable. "The performance of government in this area has really deteriorated pretty significantly over the past 20 years," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-17/nt-government-public-hous…
# Australia, Public and community housing, State Government.‘Gut-wrenching’: Hunt for affordable home couldn’t outrun climate change
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Jacob Dossett and his family swapped the northern beaches for the Northern Rivers in the middle of 2021, as they chased affordable housing and a tree change. But after living there for less than a year, they have now lost everything in the catastrophic floods that swept through the region.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/gut-wrenching-the-climate-c…
# NSW, Climate change, Regional NSW.How Australia’s skyrocketing cost of living is pushing people into poverty
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Julie-Marie Hay didn’t always struggle on her nurse’s salary – even as a single parent and the primary carer of her three children. “I used to be able to afford what we needed when we needed it, and only struggled on the odd occasion when something big came in. Even a couple of years ago,” Hay says. Hay, 41, is an enrolled nurse and works full-time in Perth. Her fortnightly take-home pay comes in at just under $2,000. She receives small stipends from the family tax benefit and carer’s allowance from Centrelink, and occasional child support payments. And it’s not enough to keep the family’s heads above water. ... And then there’s rent, which has “skyrocketed” in Perth. Hay’s rose $60 per week last April and she is terrified it will rise again next month. “I don’t have any savings, so if they say to me ‘you’re out’, then I’m stuck.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/how-austr…
# Australia, Rent, Families, Personal stories, Women, Work, employment.