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
The Sydney suburbs within reach of first home buyer budgets
Kate Burke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s property market has soared to new heights, with house and unit prices across much of the city slipping out of reach of first-home buyers. Aspiring homeowners with a healthy budget of $800,000 – the price cap for Sydney buyers using the federal government’s first home loan deposit scheme – would be unable to afford the median house price in the majority of Greater Sydney suburbs, Domain figures show. Typical unit prices across half of the city would also cost more than the price cap.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-sydney-suburbs-within-r…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability.Informal Evictions: Measuring Displacement Outside the Courtroom
Sabiha Zainulbhai and Nora Daly (No paywall)From the United States ... The abundance of eviction research in the last two decades has helped frame eviction as more than a one-time financial shock, but a destructive and traumatic process with lasting, negative consequences on housing stability and other indicators of well-being. However, the absence of quality, accessible data on evictions has led to a lack of understanding about the true scope of the growing crisis — both before and during the pandemic. This paucity of data applies to formal, court-ordered evictions, but even more so to evictions happening outside the court system, or so-called “informal evictions.” (New America) You will find a shorter version of this article entitled: 'The Evictions That Landlords Got Away With During the Pandemic' in 'Slate' at: [https://slate.com/business/2022/01/evictions-pandemic-informal-data.html]
https://www.newamerica.org/future-land-housing/reports/informal-…
# Must read, Research alert International, Eviction, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19.AHURI IN 2022
AHURI (No paywall)Welcome to 2022! ... Here at AHURI, we have a big agenda ahead of us with a fascinating pipeline of research to be published, the continuation of the Cities Research Agenda, and a series of exciting engagement opportunities – both online and face-to-face with the biennial National Housing Conference to be staged in March of this year and the National Homelessness Conference to take place in August. Read on for a preview of what we are looking forward to sharing with you in 2022.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/WhctKKXPdhfvdVxXldGDgRzT…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership, Homelessness, Older people.Privacy Commission to crack down on landlords collecting intrusive information
(No paywall)From New Zealand ... Property managers and landlords are frequently collecting inappropriate and invasive information from prospective tenants, a renters advocacy group says. The Privacy Commission is cracking down on property managers and landlords breaching the Privacy Act. Renters groups call the industry a 'wild west' with little regulation or oversight for how property managers and landlords conduct their business. Renters United spokesperson Ashok Jacob told Nine to Noon landlords and property managers were doing what they thought they could get away with. Tenants were being asked to provide information on their race, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliations and whether they intended to have children. Some landlords and property managers requests were questionable when it came to privacy law, he said. (RNZ)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/460173/privacy-commission-to…
# Hot topic International, Privacy and access, Rent.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.