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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Thousands of residents infected as aged care sector hits ‘crisis’
Lucy Carroll and Mary Ward The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The vast majority of the 500 aged care homes hit by active COVID-19 outbreaks have not received an infection control spot check from the regulator in the past six months, as peak bodies warn isolation rules are forcing residents into “endless lockdowns” and weeks confined to their rooms. ... Former premier and CEO of HammondCare Mike Baird said the ADF could be recruited to help aged care which is facing a “perfect storm” with thousands of furloughed staff and workers on holiday leave across the sector. “The combination of staff off and rising infections is creating an unprecedented challenge and at this stage we are open to any support, including from the ADF,” Mr Baird said.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/thousands-of-residents-infected-…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Older people.‘Genuinely diabolical’: in-home aged care struggling to meet critical needs under Omicron surge
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)Home care providers say critical care services, including nursing and medication needs, are being left to family members as they juggle limited staff numbers due to explosive growth in Covid case numbers. Labor says the federal government’s management of the aged care sector has been “diabolical”, with Covid outbreaks in at least 495 aged care homes nationally and a shortage of rapid antigen tests. Integratedliving Australia, which has more than 20,000 clients in regional, rural and remote areas across the eastern seaboard, said about 8% of its in-home care workforce was either infected or in isolation as a result of Covid exposure – up from 6% the previous week. Most of its clients are on commonwealth home support programs but some have higher needs and utilise home care packages and NDIS programs. As some services are scaled back, family members are being asked to take over critical care duties to allow staff to be prioritised where needed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/13/genuinely…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Older people.A COVID commune’: How share houses are managing positive cases
Rachel Dexter The Age (Paywall)In the past week, Benjamin Nichol has slept in a paddock and an empty house, and will now sleep in a tent until he can go home. The 26-year-old theatre director lives in a share house of four young people in Northcote, and the household, except for him, has come down with COVID-19.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-covid-commune-how-…
# Australia, Share houses, Coronavirus COVID-19.Search for space to WFH sends Sydney rents to record high
Elizabeth Redman and Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Sydney rents have risen to a record high and tenants are forking out $50 a week more than they were a year ago for the median house. A search for more space to work from home during lockdown prompted the rise, with apartment rents rising at only half the pace of houses – up 4.3 per cent in a year, or $20 a week, to a record median of $490. Sydney’s rental market is the second-most expensive in the country, topped only by Canberra, despite last year’s lockdown and its associated job losses. Tenants are in a race for space and have been placing greater importance on their homes due to lockdown ... Joel Dignam, executive director of tenant advocacy group Better Renting, said rent increases were bad news for people who needed somewhere to live, especially if their wages were not growing much, and called for better protections against evictions and steep rent increases.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/search-for-space-to-wfh-sen…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market.Let's make housing a basic right in 2022
Kate Colvin (No paywall)The post-Christmas hangover involves a good dose of financial anxiety for millions of Australians. This time of year is always a financial challenge, but in 2021 more than ever, Australians' household budgets were eclipsed by spiralling housing costs. Paying for a roof over our head is the number one expense for most Australians, the one which contributes the most stress day in and day out, and makes it extremely difficult for many to make ends meet throughout the year, let alone over the holiday period. And with the nation's property market not yet at its peak, and the federal government wilfully neglecting calls for an intervention, it seems there is no relief in sight. (The Singleton Argus)
https://www.singletonargus.com.au/story/7574353/lets-make-housin…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Human rights, Regional NSW.Smoke inhalation kills several in New York apartment block fire
Maria Caspani The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Nineteen people, including nine children, were killed in a fire started by a malfunctioning space heater at a Bronx apartment building in New York City’s deadliest blaze in more than three decades. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, just over a week into the job, confirmed the tragedy in the imposing 19-floor Twin Parks North West building which provided affordable housing units and was home to a Gambian community. ... The 120-unit building in the Twin Parks North West complex was built in 1973 as part of a project to build modern, affordable housing in the Bronx. “Many of these buildings are old. Not every apartment has a fire alarm. Most of these buildings have no sprinkler system,” congressman Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who represents the area, said on MSNBC. “And so the risk of a fire is much higher in lower income neighbourhoods, in the Bronx, than it might be elsewhere in the city or in the country.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/smoke-inhalation-kill…
# International, Affordable housing.Spend more on social housing to reduce benefit bill, say peers
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)The House of Lords Built Environment Committee has urged the government to change its approach to spending on housing, as part of a wide-ranging report into boosting housing supply that was published today. The report said a “transition to spending more on the social housing stock” would address the “problem” of many individuals living in expensive private rented accommodation that is subsidised by taxpayers via housing benefit. Housing benefit is currently costing the government roughly £23.4bn per year, the report said. “Particularly given how much money is being spent on housing benefit… I think we thought the government should have a look at whether it’d be better value for money to do a bit more social rent,” the chair of the committee, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, told Inside Housing.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/spend-more-on-social-h…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership.The Guardian view on the cladding scandal: businesses must pay
Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)As the public inquiry into the disaster continues its examination of the specifics, a parallel process has led to tens of thousands of flat dwellers in England trying to escape a nightmare of their own (the precise number of those affected is unknown). From the United Kingdom ... The same type of cladding used on Grenfell was found on 477 other buildings over 18 metres tall in the aftermath of the disaster, with a full audit of buildings between 11 metres and 18 metres tall that are in need of alterations still incomplete. It is the plight of these unlucky residents, many of them first-time buyers of leasehold properties, that the secretary of state for levelling up and housing, Michael Gove, on Monday pledged to resolve.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/10/the-guardi…
# International, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, Housing market.