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
Homeless deaths in the UK have increased by 80% since 2019. But we had a solution
Simon Hattenstone and Daniel Lavelle The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Two years ago this week, the government launched a scheme called Everyone In, which did just what it said on the tin. It provided funding to ensure rough sleepers were housed in hotels or hostels during the first lockdown. In a single stroke, it essentially eradicated Britain’s street homelessness crisis. ... We hoped at the time it would be the start of a concerted, long-term plan to deal with homelessness in general and street homelessness in particular. How naive we were. A few months later the government quietly pulled the plug on the programme. Look around you now, and it’s hard to imagine that rough sleepers were living in hotels only a couple of years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/31/homeless-d…
# International, Homelessness.Tenancy rights offer opportunities for change
Adam Hughes Henry Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The threat of being unable to afford to buy a home is now supplanted by the fear of being unable to afford ever increasing rents. Yet there has been progress, the fear of being unable to afford increasing rents is now giving way to real fears of becoming homeless. The most concerning reality is that this phenomenon is not only Australia wide, but there is little to indicate that there is much political will to address the situation. This is a society where speculative finance and the desire for socially irresponsible profit, is causing untold damage to our communities.
https://johnmenadue.com/tenancy-rights-offer-opportunities-for-c…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.Exhibition: The Promise of Housing
Miriam Charlie (No paywall)Also named ‘Li Bardawu (The Houses)’, or ‘My Country No Home, Still Waiting’, the collection showcases portraits of First Nations residents and their houses in the gulf town of Borroloola in the Northern Territory. Tin Sheds Gallery, 148 City Road, Darlington NSW 2008, 7 April - 14 May 2022.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/architecture/about/tin-sheds-gallery/t…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Housing market.Why you should pay attention to New Zealand's rental crisis, even if you aren't renting
Dileepa Fonseka (No paywall)New Zealand has a long history of being slow to face up to the plight of its renters, but the issue is only going to grow. [Read on] (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128194617/why-you-should-pay-at…
# International, Rent, Housing market, International.WA government denies fire boss power to veto ‘undefendable’ property developments
Sarah Brookes The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The group fighting a controversial property development in the Perth Hills are disappointed the State Government has ignored an independent recommendation to give the DFES Commissioner the power to veto new subdivisions that would be undefendable during a major blaze.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-government-…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.Social housing reforms branded ‘wishy washy’ as tenants call for firmer timeline
Stephen Delahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Tenant campaign groups have said they are concerned the government has still failed to provide a timescale for the implementation of its post-Grenfell social housing reforms and branded ministers’ most recent announcement on the issue “wishy washy”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-housing-reforms…
# International, Public and community housing.Homeless deaths surge by 80% in two years
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The number of people dying while experiencing homelessness increased by 80% over the past two years, new research has found. An annual piece of work by the Museum of Homelessness (MoH), named the Dying Homeless Project, found that 1,286 people died while homeless across the UK in 2021 compared with 710 in 2019. The numbers, which include people sleeping rough and those placed in emergency accommodation, increased by 32% from 2020 to 2021, with a death now occurring on average every seven hours.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/homeless-deaths-surge-…
# International, Homelessness.How a million Australians could be lifted out of poverty through tweaks to tax
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tweaks to superannuation and personal income tax could fund a boost to income support payments and rental assistance, and lift a million Australians out of poverty as people grapple with increasing hip-pocket pain, particularly for the country’s poorest. ... Renters and single parents have the highest poverty rates, according to the research ... The ANU researchers outlined three potential models for reducing poverty and the tax adjustments that would be required to fund them. The low model, which would lift JobSeeker by $150 per fortnight and increase Commonwealth rent assistance by 50 per cent, could be paid for by reducing the capital gains tax concession from 50 per cent to 37.5 per cent. [Read on]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-a-million-australian…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Landlords and agents, Tax.