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
‘Helps take pressure off’: Why house prices could slow down
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Property prices across Australia could face downward pressure later this year if earlier than expected rate hikes reduce home buyers’ borrowing capacity.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/helps-take-pressure-off-why…
# Australia, Housing market.I live with 28 other men — and my wife. The power of connection changed everything for me
Jayden Battey ABC (No paywall)Living through six Melbourne lockdowns alongside 28 people at risk of homelessness has taught my wife Mikyla and I a thing or two about what true community looks like ... t was June 2020 when Mikyla and I moved in to manage a property with Servants Community Housing. It's a community rooming house in Melbourne – a form of communal accommodation with private rooms and shared facilities. Housing like this exists all across Australia, supporting thousands of people on low incomes and those at risk of homelessness.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-30/5050-project-the-power-of…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Families, Homelessness, Personal stories.Housing Ombudsman: how social landlords should handle damp and mould complaints
Jack Simpson Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The Housing Ombudsman’s recent Spotlight report into damp and mould found inadequate complaint handling by social landlords. ... “There is sometimes a bit of inevitability from social landlords that damp and mould will happen,” says Richard Blakeway, head of the Housing Ombudsman. “That shouldn’t be the case, we want the sector to shift that mindset so landlords have a strategic response [to the issues] and there shouldn’t be that inevitability.” ... While naming and shaming is a key part of the ombudsman’s new approach to driving up standards, sharing best practice is equally as critical. ... The heart of the ombudsman’s message is for landlords to take a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould. What Mr Blakeway and his colleagues have come across is a culture where landlords expect damp and mould issues to happen and respond, often inadequately, when they come up. He wants this to change, and feels landlords can be a lot more proactive in their approach. This includes regular inspections and using data from complaints to get ahead of any issues.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/housing-ombudsman-how-so…
# International, Public and community housing, Mould.Nearly 400 households made homeless every day after eviction ban lifted
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)An average of 400 households became homeless every day in the first three full months after the eviction ban ended in England, new government homelessness figures show. ... The data published today shows that 397 households became homeless every day between July and September last year, with a total of 36,510 households becoming homeless over the three months. The figure is down 4.6% from the same quarter last year. Since the start of the pandemic, 222,360 households have been tipped into homelessness. Homelessness charity Shelter said it is “bracing itself to help people with nowhere else to turn” after the removal of other COVID-19 protections, such as the £20-a-week boost to Universal Credit and furlough, and as energy and fuel bills surge.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/nearly-400-households-…
# International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.A Poor Knock: Colbeck carousing at the cricket amid aged care crisis just tip of incompetence iceberg
Sarah Russell (No paywall)Failure to protect Federal aged care residents has left 389 elderly Australians dead this year alone, and 40% of private nursing homes locked down. Dr Sarah Russell reports on the government’s devastating failure as the Covid aged care crisis grips. (Michael West Media)
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/a-poor-knock-colbeck-carousing-at…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people.Join the dots for housing policy failure
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)Near-stagnant national social housing investment, Sydney’s median house price hits $1.6 million, a shortage of building materials, soaring rents, worsening affordability – join the dots of this week’s stories to see monumental government policy failure. And, at least at the federal level, we’re set for more of the same, by the smell of the latest housing inquiry. There are multiple factors at play in the housing crisis facing the third of Australians who rent, but the biggest elephant in the room is the ideological preferencing of profit-driven private sector delivery of social necessities. The results of letting for-profit private operators loose on aged care have been well documented. We have become somewhat inured to the same neoliberal commitment to “can-do capitalism” wreaking havoc in housing. The multi-decade decline of government housing has been matched by the increasingly expensive subsidising of private landlords – and not just through the tax system’s negative gearing and capital gains tax discount. On the surface, the $5.3 billion in Commonwealth Rent Assistance payments last financial year went to low-income renters, but in reality it flowed to private landlords, propping up rental prices at the lower end of the market but still leaving nearly half of CRA recipients in rental stress – paying more than 30 per cent of their low incomes for shelter. And that is worsening as colliding policies and COVID fallout push rents sharply higher, especially in regional centres ... [Read on]
https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2022/01/28/michael-pascoe-hou…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Landlords and agents, Older people, Tax, Welfare.Garry sleeps in his van because his pay doesn't cover rent and food in regional NSW
ABC (No paywall)Instead of driving home from work, Garry Wallis sets up his van in a suburban car park and settles in for the night. Due to housing shortages and high rent costs he's not the only one, and it's having an impact on employment as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYUgiYxYd_c&ab_channel=ABCNews%2…
# Video NSW, Homelessness, Regional NSW, Work, employment.Sydney’s sea and tree changers push regional house prices to record highs
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)House prices in pockets of regional NSW are rising at a faster rate than in Sydney, as ongoing demand from sea and tree changers pushes prices to record heights. Prices across a string of local government areas have jumped by more than a third year-on-year, new Domain figures for the December quarter reveal.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-s-sea-and-tree-chang…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.