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
Pleas for NSW flood survivors with disability to be prioritised for urgent housing, care
Bruce MacKenzie and Samantha Turnbull ABC (No paywall)Toynera Macgregor and her 16-year-old son Annan are homeless after floods swamped their Lismore rental. They expect to have a tougher time than most finding a suitable place to live in northern NSW. Annan lives with autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, an intellectual disability, and uses a wheelchair. "It took a year to find this [now flooded] place because there's a serious problem with affordable, wheelchair-accessible social housing," Ms Macgregor said. Disability service providers and advocates are joining her in calling on governments to urgently prioritise the needs of flood survivors living with disability. ... Ms Macgregor said the trauma of evacuating from a flooded home was exacerbated by being unable to live in accommodation such as an evacuation centre. ... NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet fronted media in Lismore on Thursday to outline details of a $551 million housing strategy for the region. He said the needs of people living with disabilities were covered by the plan.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-11/flood-survivors-with-disa…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Disability, Homelessness, State Government.‘We must separate the idea of house from home’: the case for drastic action on shelter
Tone Wheeler The Guardian (No paywall)How does Australia change from an investment-property-owning gerontocracy to a home-for-all loving nation? It’s time for radical reform. Inequality is the greatest threat to our society, and nowhere is that inequality more evident than in housing. The rich get richer with ever more houses; the poor get rent stress or homelessness. And inequality will only grow with the rising incidence of housing crises resulting from natural disasters like fire and flood.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/13/we-must-s…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Home, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.2022 National Housing Conference shines post-COVID
AHURI News AHURI (No paywall)The 2022 National Housing Conference (NHC), delayed by six months and moved 1600 kilometres from its planned location in Brisbane due to the COVID-19 pandemic, made a triumphant return in Melbourne last week. From Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 March, close to 1300 delegates (over 800 in the room and almost 500 online) from a broad range of sectors came together to learn the lessons for the housing sector from the pandemic and other external challenges, and importantly, to re-connect with friends and colleagues, old and new. {Read the full report]
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/news/2022-National-Housing-Con…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Climate change, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Race and ethnicity, Women.Pressure grows on Airbnb to permit long-term rentals as NSW floods worsen housing crisis
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Airbnb has announced plans to provide free short-term accommodation for flood-affected residents in the northern rivers, as pressure mounts on the company to switch its model and offer long-term rentals at market prices for homeless people. Before the floods, the area was already suffering a housing crisis, with 2,300 homes needed to take the heat out of the market and create what would be considered a healthy vacancy rate. Now it will be felt acutely, with early calculations showing more than 2,195 houses have been rendered uninhabitable because of the floods. More than 6,260 Airbnbs are operating in the area, according to the open source data tool Inside Airbnb. Of those, 4,006 (64%) had a high availability rate, meaning they were available to tourists most of the year and unlikely to be an owner-occupier renting out their home occasionally.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/10/pressure-…
# NSW, Rent, Short-term holiday letting.NSW pledges $551 million in flood support
Farid Farid (No paywall)People whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by the unprecedented flood crisis in NSW will benefit from a half a billion dollar support package. (The Macleay Argus) Also, check out the link at: [https://www.nsw.gov.au/floods/financial-support].
https://www.macleayargus.com.au/story/7652351/nsw-pledges-551-mi…
# NSW, Housing market, State Government.Flood damage bill will be 'extraordinary' as extra cash flows for clean-up
ABC (No paywall)More than $550 million in extra funding from federal and state government's has been announced for flood affected communities. The funds are targeting temporary housing, and local government areas will receive money for removal of flood and storm related damage, debris and green waste. ... About 20 motor homes will leave Sydney today to be used as temporary accommodation for flooded affected residents in northern NSW. They are part of a temporary housing package announced by the federal and state governments yesterday. Other key elements include a 16-week rental support program and money for temporary pods so people can stay on their land while rebuilding.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-11/extra-cash-flows-in-for-n…
# NSW, Homelessness, State Government.‘We’ve run out of options here’: NSW flood disaster worsens housing crisis in northern rivers
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (Paywall)For the past week, [Lucy] Andrews and two other women – volunteers with social work experience – have been doing all they can to ease the vast crisis in emergency accommodation in their corner of the flood-ravaged northern rivers region of New South Wales. Their work began last Tuesday, when one of the women sat down on the steps of Mullumbimby’s civic hall with a notepad and phone, and began offering assistance to anyone who needed emergency housing. She was soon joined by another former social worker and Andrews, who sat at a trestle table from 8am to 8pm each day, creating spreadsheets of the displaced and homeless, triaging them and trying to link them up with safe, appropriate accommodation. ... The region had been gripped by a housing crisis even before the floods. Private rentals were hard to find, and those that were available were exorbitant. Social housing was even more limited. ... It’s an understatement to say the floods have compounded the problem, even in ways not immediately apparent. Andrews, for example, has been served an eviction notice telling her she must leave her Mullumbimby rental. The landlord lost his property in the floods and needs the house back. That throws Andrews and her housemates into a search for housing along with those whose homes have been deemed unliveable.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/11/weve-run-…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Homelessness.Insurers brace for rising flood damage amid climate change, and they warn you should too
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)As New South Wales and Queensland clean up after what are likely to be the costliest floods in Australian history, insurers have a stark warning — prepare for things to get worse, especially along the east coast. As businesses with some of the most skin in the game when it comes to climate change effects on extreme weather, insurance companies are at the forefront of research about what to expect as global temperatures warm. ... [And ...] in a warmer climate, damaging hail is expected to increase for the capital cities of Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, Adelaide and Perth.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-12/climate-change-floods-ins…
# Hot topic Australia, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.