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
Fears of aged care industry exodus as unions slam cash payments for workers
Tom Lowrey ABC (No paywall)The federal government is being warned that one-off cash payments to aged care workers will not stem a flood of staff leaving the industry. ... More aged care residents died of COVID-19 in January this year than in total last year. ... National president of the Health Services Union, Gerard Hayes, was fiercely critical of the payments. "This is a period where aged care workers need diamonds, and trinkets won't do what's required. The government has known for a long, long time — since the aged care royal commission — that there's a workforce crisis in aged care. And giving convenient $400 payments prior to an election is just insulting to aged care people." Also, read David Crowe's article entitled: 'Cash bonuses for aged care workers as Coalition faces poll anger' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/cash-bonuses-for-aged-care-workers-as-coalition-faces-poll-anger-20220131-p59skx.html] And, read Stephanie Dalzell's article entitled: 'What you need to know about the fight to raise aged care worker's pay in the Fair Work Commission' at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-02/aged-care-worker-pay-rise-fair-work-commission/100796940]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-01/unions-slam-aged-care-cas…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Housing market, Older people, Work, employment.‘My apartment is literally baking’: calls for minimum standards to keep Australia’s rental homes cool
Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)As temperatures soared last week, Cass Willcocks’s rental apartment in inner Melbourne quickly became “unliveable”. “It’s gotten to the point where the tiles in my kitchen are hot, I try to put moisturiser on and it’s hot. Everything in my apartment is literally baking and I feel like I’m suffocating,” she said. “I pay $395 a week for an apartment that’s basically unliveable. ... Victorian Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, has written to consumer affairs minister Melissa Horne, asking her to amend the minimum standards for rental properties to make cooling mandatory.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/01/my-apartm…
# Australia, Rent, Minimum habitability standards.City of Vancouver ordered to disclose Airbnb data
Rohana (No paywall)From Canada ... We won! The City of Vancouver has been ordered to disclose the Airbnb licence database. This is a major victory for the residents of Vancouver adversely impacted by Airbnb operations in the city. ... We’re in the midst of a crushing housing crisis. Thousands are homeless on the street, while tens of thousands live in their vehicles or couchsurf with their friends. One in five families spend more than half their paycheque on rent. The Vancouver City Council needs to ban Airbnb completely in the city. The City of Vancouver should make cracking down on Airbnb a priority.
https://rezel.ca/2022/01/city-of-vancouver-ordered-to-disclose-a…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, Local Government, Short-term holiday letting.‘Screw you’: The critical workers squeezed out of Byron Bay
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Paramedic Benjamin Gilmour lives in a cabin with his three children in the small village of Federal in Byron Bay’s hinterland. Despite the diminutive digs, he considers himself one of the lucky ones who has managed to find something within a reasonable commuting distance – some 20 kilometres, or a 25-minute drive, west of Byron Bay. But it has come at a cost. There is only one bedroom to house his entire family and, even with this compromise, he struggles to cover rent and groceries. ... [And] Mr Gilmour said paramedics also witness the other end of the spectrum created by the property boom: “We regularly get called to hundreds of people who are living in the area in their cars, in their vans, under bridges. It reminds me sometimes of San Francisco’s level of homelessness. “There is a health consequence of having to live in a car or van for a long period of time without access to toilets and showers.” Once he was called out to an 82-year-old woman living in her car because she could not find anywhere affordable to live on her pension.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/screw-you-the-critical-work…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Regional NSW.Shelter NSW priorities for the NSW Budget 2022-2023
(No paywall)The NSW Treasury is currently preparing for the next state budget (2022-2023). No doubt there will be a great many difficult choices and trade-offs made. Our submission does recognise the NSW Government’s early action in the pandemic to support particularly vulnerable groups however, our overriding observation as we enter 2022 is one of concern. In 2022-23, NSW faces an interrupted and uncertain economic recovery with rising housing costs contributing to cost-of-living concerns for many, but especially for lower income households. Our view is that NSW is not well-placed to respond to the precarious economic conditions of the mid-term, let alone the longer-term trends of an aging population and income/wealth inequity. Responses by Government and a strained community and social sector are failing to keep up with current demand. NSW requires the following measures ... [to] prevent homelessness and support economic development and employment across the state, including in regional towns and cities. [Read on]
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-priorities-for-the-nsw…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, State Government.‘No-fault’ evictions set to be abolished under Levelling Up White Paper plans
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions are set to be banned in the private rented sector (PRS) as part of the government’s long-awaited plans to ‘level up’ the country. The move was officially revealed ahead of the full release of the Levelling Up White Paper today, which aims to balance prosperity across the country by investing in poorer areas, and means private landlords will no longer be able to evict tenants for no reason. There are also plans for a number of other changes for private renters, including a requirement that all homes in the PRS meet the Decent Homes Standard; potentially introducing a landlords register; and cracking down on rogue landlords, “making sure fines and bans stop repeat offenders leaving renters in terrible conditions”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/no-fault-evictions-set-to-b…
# New policy announcement International, Rent, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards, No-grounds evictions.Scott Morrison's awkward Grace Tame photo opportunity brings a string of other unfortunate images back to haunt him
Laura Tingle ABC (Paywall)[Anthony Albanese] found himself being asked by the ABC's Andrew Probyn at the National Press Club this week to explain who he was. ... He told the story of his first campaign, driven by a threat to the security of the public housing where he lived from a change of local government: "My first campaign, I was 12 years old. We organised a rent strike. We took petitions around to everyone. That was my experience of that. That drove me. That was my first political campaign. And by the way, we won."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-29/scott-morrison-grace-tame…
# Australia, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, History, Local Government.Alleged assault the ‘last straw’ in street parking dispute
Amelia McGuire The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Residents of an eastern suburbs street say the serious injury of a man in an altercation over parking is the final straw in a long-running series of hostilities in the area. For the past 20 years, Sydneysiders have used Bundock Street in Randwick to park their caravans, trailers and boats for extended periods. There are no time limits on the street, which runs beside Defence land on one side.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/alleged-king-hit-on-resident…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development.