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
Halls Creek's housing crisis puts further strain on women's shelter
Ted O'Connor ABC (No paywall)A severe housing shortage in a remote town is heaping pressure on a women's shelter, forcing it to accommodate families in crisis for months at a time. It is estimated that up to 80 per cent of people live in overcrowded conditions in Halls Creek, which is also causing widespread social problems across the wider Kimberley. The lack of public housing and affordable rentals means women and children fleeing domestic violence have few options and often end up back living with perpetrators.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-18/housing-crisis-puts-press…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.Burrinunga residents hope for help to repair their dangerously run-down housing
Erin Parke ABC (No paywall)Residents of a northern town are pleading for assistance to upgrade housing after two people suffered electric shocks while living in dangerously run-down conditions. Community leaders say the situation at the Burrinunga community in northern Western Australia demonstrates the failure of successive governments to deliver on promised improvements to living conditions at so-called Aboriginal reserves.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/electric-shocks-squatters…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Repairs, Minimum habitability standards.Mortgage growth falls from nutty highs but new homebuyers are still feeling the pain
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)Surge in mortgages during pandemic suggests house prices will continue to grow for first half of 2022 – at least. ... [And why?] the mantra of Australia’s political class – the housing market must not falter. And so two years later in November 2021, the value of new mortgages taken out was 64% higher than it had been two years earlier.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/18/mortgage-v…
# Australia, Housing market.The big idea: could fixing housing fix everything else, too?
Sam Bowman The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... If you could wave a magic wand and fix one modern ill, what would it be? Inequality? Pollution? Intergenerational unfairness? The decline of the high street? Suburban ennui? What if you didn’t have to pick, because there was one social problem that lay at the root of all of them? It’s not exactly news that Britain has a shortage of housing. ... Whatever the solution, the damage done by Britain’s housing shortage cannot be overstated. It disrupts our lives in countless ways. As long as it continues, we are poorer, less equal, more polluting and more unhappy as a result. But, in a way, that’s a reason to be optimistic. It means that the gains from fixing this one problem could be huge – bigger than anyone imagined.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/17/the-big-idea-could…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Housing security an urgent concern
Letters The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Scroll down to 'Housing security an urgent concern' and 'Home ownership is but a dream' and check out the letters.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/morrison-as-preferred-pm-bel…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Women, Young people.Series of new rental reforms to come into force in Wales this summer, minister confirms
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)New rental reforms, which the Welsh government has branded the “biggest change to housing law in Wales for decades”, are set to come into force in July this year, the government has confirmed. ... The act includes a number of major changes to rental law in Wales, including increasing the notice period that landlords must give when issuing ‘no-fault’ evictions from two to six months. It will also no longer be possible for landlords to issue no-fault evictions during the first six months of a tenancy, meaning all tenants will be protected from no-fault evictions for a minimum 12-month period when entering into a new contract. It comes as UK government ministers promise to ban no-fault evictions entirely in England, with proposals to be put forward as part of an upcoming white paper. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act will also require all landlords to provide a written copy of the occupation contract to their tenant, which should set out the rights and responsibilities of both parties. A strengthened duty will also be placed on landlords to ensure the property they rent is fit for human habitation, including the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and regular electrical safety testing. The government said the act will also tackle ‘retaliatory evictions’, for example when a landlord serves notice to a tenant after they ask for repairs or complain about poor conditions.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/series-of-new-rental-r…
# International, Rent, Minimum habitability standards, No-grounds evictions, Smoke alarms.Children in temporary accommodation in London ‘suffering appalling abuses of their rights’, research finds
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)The human rights of children living in temporary accommodation in London are being violated as a result of “persistent policy failures by central and local government”, research has found. A report published today by Human Rights Watch and the Childhood Trust argued that the UK is failing in its duty to ensure the right to adequate housing for homeless families. Based on interviews with 75 people, including 33 who are currently living in or had recently left temporary accommodation, the report found families living in conditions including toxic mould, cold temperatures, and a lack of adequate space.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/children-in-temporary-…
# International, Families, Homelessness, Local Government, Mould.Queensland unit dwellers could be barred from smoking on balconies after landmark decision
Rebecca Levingston and Antonia O'Flaherty ABC (No paywall)Queenslanders living in apartments could be prevented from smoking on their balconies after a "game changing" decision to ban one unit owner from doing so after a complaint from an upstairs neighbour. A unit owner at the Artique Resort in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast complained that their downstairs neighbour, on the eighth floor, was a "chain smoker". The ninth-floor owner claimed the eighth-floor neighbour spends about five minutes smoking and could do so about every 20 to 40 minutes, labelling the smoke "relentless and unbearable", causing her to be concerned about her health. ... The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management's adjudicator ordered that the eighth-floor owner must no longer smoke tobacco products on the balcony. Furthermore, it was ruled she can only smoke elsewhere within her apartment if she takes reasonable steps to ensure the smoke does not affect any person in another apartment.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-19/gold-coast-unit-owner-ban…
# Australia, Strata, Neighbours.