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
Path to home ownership for women ‘falling through the gaps’
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Vulnerable women with steady but low incomes could have a path to home ownership under a new model of property development backed by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. The concept is a twist on “build-to-rent”, where the developer becomes the landlord and manages the property rather than selling the apartments to owner-occupiers and investors. Instead, it is dubbed as “build-to-rent-to-buy” because the women will also have the right to buy their homes. The corporation’s chief executive Nathan Dal Bon said the proposed pilot study was in Canberra, but he hoped to replicate it nationally.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/path-to-home-ownership-for-women…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Women.Coffs Harbour homelessness advocate facing rental struggle of his own
Nick Parmeter and Fiona Poole ABC (No paywall)Dean Evers, a long-time local and chief executive of Hope for the Homeless, said he was feeling the rental squeeze hitting Coffs Harbour. He has been looking for a home for three months after receiving a termination notice from his landlord. "The continued knockbacks because there are so many people applying for properties, and just how soul-destroying that is to keep doing that day after day," he said. ... Coffs Harbour has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the state at just 0.8 per cent, according to the REINSW Vacancy Rate Survey for December. Skyrocketing demand and short supply have led to soaring median rental prices ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/coffs-harbour-homelessnes…
# NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.Indigenous group raises doubts over plan to reduce violence against women
Cameron Gooley The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A new draft strategy to reduce violence against First Nations women and children has been criticised as a meaningless plan by a national justice advocacy organisation, but the federal government insists it is serious about improving outcomes for Indigenous families. ... the announcement has been met with exasperation by Indigenous advocacy group Change the Record. Its co-chair, Narungga woman Cheryl Axleby, said the issue was too significant for Indigenous people to be a footnote in a larger plan. “We need a dedicated self-determined national plan which isn’t a footnote to a mainstream report, which is the issue that we face time and time again,” she said.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/indigenous-group-raises-…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Race and ethnicity.After his ICU shift, ‘street medic’ Daniel helps the city’s homeless
Mary Ward The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It was a chance encounter in June 2020, during a semester in London for the final classes of his medical degree, that gave Sydney doctor Daniel Nour the idea for the project which has come to fill most of his time since. The 26-year-old, who is the 2022 NSW Young Australian of the Year, came to the aid of a man having a seizure outside a train station. Speaking with the man’s friends, many of whom were homeless, as they waited for paramedics, Dr Nour was struck by their disdain for doctors. ... Returning to Sydney as COVID-19 cases rose and restrictions were reintroduced, Dr Nour was uncertain about whether it was the right time to try to start a mobile medical clinic for the homeless. “I remember at our first meeting it was the elephant in the room but, really, in light of COVID it was needed more than ever,” he said. Over the past 18 months, the Street Side Medics team has grown to 250 GPs, nurses, doctors and allied health professionals, who visit Woolloomooloo, Brookvale, Manly and Parramatta each week to treat rough sleepers and people at risk of homelessness.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/after-his-icu-shift-street-m…
# NSW, Homelessness, Personal stories.Poor people don’t need more food banks, rebates and spin from politicians. We need more income support
Kristin O'Connell The Guardian (No paywall)Stereotypes and political rhetoric about poverty ignore the fact that welfare payments in Australia are obscenely low
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/19/poor-peopl…
# Australia, Federal Government, Welfare.Political rhetoric insufficient to help Aussies own their own home
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)After two years of being largely confined to them, our homes have become the ultimate symbol of comfort and safety for many. So, it was perhaps no surprise to see unified appeals to the great Aussie dream of homeownership from both Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese in exclusive interviews published in this newspaper over the past week. ... And while the upcoming election looks set to be long on rhetoric about the joys of home ownership, it is also looking decidedly short on policies of real substance to actually stop runaway home values or help achieve higher rates of ownership.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/political-rhetoric-i…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market.Towers Rise Over London’s Brick Lane, Clouding Its Future
Aina J Khan The New York Times (Paywall)From London ... Luxury developments and rising rents have ignited concerns about gentrification and displacement in a district that has long been a sanctuary for minority communities. ... The plans have met fierce resistance from some local residents and campaigners. The district’s member of Parliament, Rushanara Ali of the opposition Labour Party, said residents had expressed concerns about the “limited concessions” made by the developers, adding that the Conservative government had reduced “local powers and accountability to local communities” over development. Opponents of the development also argue that it could cause rents and housing prices to rise in what has long been a working-class area.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/15/world/europe/bangladesh-londo…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Planning and development, Race and ethnicity, Work, employment.Bulimba Barracks buyers should be restricted from making noise complaints, Brisbane Airport says
Lucy Stone ABC (No paywall)Brisbane Airport Corporation is urging Brisbane City Council to restrict future home buyers at the master-planned 855-home Bulimba Barracks site from making aircraft noise complaints. It warns the entire site falls under the airport's flight paths and will endure 60-70 decibel noise daily.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-18/brisbane-airport-concerns…
# Australia, Home ownership, Local Government, Neighbours.