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
First came the wedding, then the drag queens: Lane with ugly past transforms into an inner-city oasis
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A bromeliad plant growing in a rusted pot marks the spot where Sydney woman Rebecca Bernauer’s body was found stuffed behind a discarded fridge in a laneway near Kings Cross one night in 1997. ... Mr Vasquez and his partner, Mike Heenan, are on a mission to transform Hayden Lane. They planted “Rebecca’s pot” as a memorial to Ms Bernauer an 18-year-old sex worker who was killed weeks before she was due to give evidence in the drug trial of a former police officer. Her murder has never been solved. The gesture embodied the couple’s year-long project to turn the gritty lane into something beautiful; a reclamation of public space for the community, and an antidote to the banality of long lockdowns.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/first-came-the-wedding-then-…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Gardens, yards, lawns, Neighbours."Stand on your two legs and say no more" - housing activism in the 1970s and 80's
Shane and Fiona (No paywall)Shane and Fiona interview Joan Doyle and Maureen Donnelly about housing activism in the 1970's and 1980's, where groups of people took direct action for housing justice, including squatting empty government housing, protesting at Parliament and lots of other creative forms of action. A great insight into the early days of HAAG and testimony to the change that can happen through people "standing on their two legs" to take their housing rights. (3CR 8.55am Community Radio)
https://www.3cr.org.au/haag/episode-202201261730/stand-your-two-…
# History, Audio Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Squatting.Industry stakeholders strike deal that could lead to pay rise for Australian aged care workers
Paul Karp The Guardian (No paywall)Aged care providers and unions have quietly struck a deal acknowledging the increased complexity and value of aged care work, a key step in a case seeking pay rises of up to 25%. ... The deal raises the pressure on the Morrison government by noting that whatever pay increase the Fair Work Commission orders, it should be “fully funded by the federal government and linked to transparency and accountability measures as to how funding is used”. ... Increased wages are needed to “to attract and retain the number of skilled workers needed to deliver safe and quality care” in an industry where minimum wages are less than the acute health sector for nurses and “significantly” less than for disability support workers.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/29/industry-…
# Australia, Health, Housing market, Older people.There’s been an exodus from Australia’s cities to the regions. What does that mean for local economies?
Jessica Mizrahi The Guardian (No paywall)There are legitimate concerns about what a flood of internal migration means for regional economies. It puts pressure on infrastructure, wages and housing prices. However, it may also lift some regions out of the current tourist trap. It’s a much-needed sugar hit to encourage back both workers and businesses. After a long and hard two years, our regions deserve the sweetness.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/28/theres-bee…
# Australia, Housing market, Work, employment.Who’s living in Melbourne CBD, and how can more be convinced?
Michael Fowler The Age (Paywall)Matt Moss and Josh Jessup moved to Melbourne CBD a year ago on the back of a self-confessed, lockdown-induced existential crisis. “We wanted to change career path and focus on our art and design business,” Mr Jessup says. ... The couple, in their mid-20s, is sold. But with the Real Estate Institute of Victoria estimating 6000 apartments in the city for sale or rent and thousands more sitting empty with owners overseas, the City of Melbourne knows it faces a task convincing more people to follow suit.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/who-s-living-in-melb…
# Australia, Rent, Strata, Landlords and agents.‘Stranded’: horror month for Australian homelessness services as Omicron ravages sector
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)Stephanie Oatley recalls a day in late December when she needed to get a whole unit of young people experiencing homelessness tested for Covid. “We had a young person who started showing symptoms, and a second young person got an itchy throat,” says Oatley. “In the van they hopped. There was only one place open … They got there at 9am, and waited for nine hours.” Oatley is the chief executive of Platform Youth Services, which provides crisis accommodation to people as young as 12 in Sydney’s west, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury regions.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/30/stranded-…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Work, employment.COVID-19 booster rollout in NSW aged care too slow to prevent deaths, peak body says
Danuta Kozaki ABC (No paywall)Australia should have been better prepared for another COVID-19 variant like Omicron in order to help stop the high number of deaths in New South Wales nursing homes, a peak national aged care group says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-31/aged-care-covid-19-rollou…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Older people.Deposit gap growing faster than first-home hopefuls can save
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)First-home hopefuls who’ve spent the past year trying to buy would need to find tens of thousands of dollars extra for their deposit to keeps pace with property price rises, new analysis shows.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/deposit-gap-growing-faster-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.