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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Seasons greetings
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)After a tough year for many renters and community supporters, we hope you're all able to enjoy some well-earned good times at home, or away, over the holiday period. We at the Tenants' Union wish you and your loved ones all the best for the end of the year, and a better and brighter 2022! Thank you for your ongoing support and interest in renting issues. Whether your place is rented, owned by you, or owned by the bank, it's still your home. Please know that you deserve to feel safe and happy there. Wishing you all the best for the holidays! From everyone at the Tenants' Union (and our furry friends too!)
https://www.facebook.com/TUNSW/photos/a.336391203051934/51311422…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform.Riki's renting story
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)As part of our relaunch of the Make Renting Fair campaign, we're building a new website. For the site, we're collecting a range of renting stories from various renters across NSW, to put a human face to some of the policy issues we're campaigning on. Riki is a renter who was generous enough to share their renting story and photograph with us. If you're at all interested, please consider sharing your renting story with us - especially if you're happy for a photo of yourself to be included with that story. Stories ... are immensely valuable to our campaign to Make Renting Fair in NSW.
# NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Personal stories.The Thinkhouse Review of 2021’s best housing research
Richard Hyde Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Here’s the must-read top five most important and influential reports and research of 2021 as selected by the Thinkhouse editorial panel, led by Richard Hyde ... This year, nearly 130 reports were uploaded and categorised in our web library and each one was assessed by our editorial panel. The panel considers the quality of the research, innovation or the breadth of analysis and whether the recommendations can be translated easily into policy or influence decision-makers. The panel is made up of 20 members, drawn from a cross-section of the housing world, spanning academia and research to the not-for-profit and business sectors. .... Here is our top five, in reverse order and why we selected them. If you want a quick fix of the latest and most-influential thinking, these are the ones you should look at.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/the-thinkhouse-review-…
# Must read, Research alert International, Rent, Climate change, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Older people, Race and ethnicity, Young people.New ministers for renting, housing and homes in NSW
Leo Patterson Ross Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Premier Dominic Perrottet has today announced a new cabinet of Ministers for NSW. The line-up includes a number of revamped ministerial portfolios, so there may be some amendments to the below once the ‘machinery of government’ changes are released and we see exactly what all of the below means. For now here is an initial guide to the renting-related portfolios!
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/new-ministers-renting-housing-an…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Planning and development, State Government.Were you financially impacted by Covid-19
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)You are likely to be a COVID-19 impacted renter if your weekly household income reduced by 25% or more since 14 July 2021. You can apply for up to $4,500, if your landlord or agent has not already applied for the maximum amount available. ... Applications for the Residential Tenancy Support Payment close 31 December 2021. Read more here.
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Christmas is back at Sydney's Wayside Chapel and the 'mob lunch' helped Indigenous visitors heal
Nakari Thorpe ABC (No paywall)Leon is a frequent visitor to the chapel's Aboriginal cultural centre, a program set-up in April to provide trauma-informed care in a culturally safe space to dozens of daily visitors. ... Originally from Rockhampton, [Wayside regular Leon Hill] had sought support from numerous homelessness services around the country but said Wayside is "one of the best". ... Ngemba woman Clara Boney, who is originally from Brewarrina, has been coming to the Wayside Chapel for the past 20 years and credits it with saving her life through her years of homelessness. ... Wiradjuri woman and manager of the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Cassandra Ashcroft, said lockdowns were particularly difficult for their visitors. ... COVID lockdowns only increased demand for homelessness services, with new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare finding 70,600 people in NSW sought help in the past year, an increase of almost 40 per cent since 2014. About 31 per cent of those people identified as Aboriginal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-21/indigenous-christmas-lunc…
# NSW, Homelessness, Personal stories, Race and ethnicity.Rents see spike in people without homes
9 News (No paywall)Soaring rents in almost every part of Australia have led to a spike in the number of people without a home this holiday season.
https://www.9news.com.au/videos/national/rents-see-spike-in-peop…
# Video Australia, Rent, Homelessness.Legal duty to be placed on Scottish social landlords to prevent homelessness under new proposals
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)In a consultation published yesterday, the Scottish government outlined a number of new laws that it said “would represent the biggest change to Scotland’s homelessness legislation in almost a decade”. At the heart of the proposals is the introduction of a new legal duty on public bodies, including health and social care services, children’s services and the police, to ‘ask and act’ to prevent homelessness. For social landlords, the proposals suggested they must “take relevant reasonable steps to mitigate” the risk of homelessness when such a risk is identified, for example due to rent arrears or domestic abuse. According to the document, “reasonable” steps would include housing management practices to sustain tenancies, engaging with the tenant to address behaviour and establishing protocols to identify circumstances such as domestic abuse at an early stage.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/legal-duty-to-be-place…
# New policy announcement International, Public and community housing, Homelessness.