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
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.Eviction protections extended in Wales
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)The Welsh government has extended its measures to protect renters from evictions, leaving England the only UK country to have no protections in place amid surging COVID-19 cases. The protections, which were due to end on 31 December, mean that the eviction notice period for renters in Wales will remain at six months until 24 March 2022, except in cases of anti-social behaviour or domestic violence. It means England is the only UK country without extra eviction protections in place; Scotland has a six-month notice period in place until 31 March, while Northern Ireland has a 12-week notice period in place until 4 May.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/eviction-protections-e…
# International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19.Five million families in England face big social housing rent hike, warns thinktank
Richard Partington The Guardian (No paywall)Almost 5 million families in social housing in England are facing the biggest rent hike for a decade from April amid a mounting cost of living squeeze, according to a report. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said 4.75 million families would see rent on their local authority or housing association home rise by up to 4.1%, adding to the pressure on living costs by an average £202 extra a year. It warned the increase would coincide with significant tax rises planned by the government to come in from April and a further jump in household utility bills when Ofgem’s consumer energy price cap is raised. The Bank of England also forecasts inflation will peak at about 6% the same month, the highest level since 1992. “Rising social rents on top of these increases will be very damaging for living standards indeed,” it added. You may read a similar report by Lucie Heath entitled: 'Social tenants face average rent hikes of £202 next year amid ‘cost of living crunch’, thinktank warns' in 'Inside Housing' at: ['https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/social-tenants-face-average-rent-hikes-of-202-next-year-amid-cost-of-living-crunch-thinktank-warns-73802?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12888843_IH-DAILY-22-12-2021-GR&dm_i=1HH2,7O93F,VLV45B,V9N4O,1]
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/22/five-million-fa…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Families.House prices up. Birth rates down. Ceri and Scott caught in the middle
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A hot property market emboldens homeowners to have more children while renters are more likely to put it off, a new study has found. The implications are far-reaching, experts say, as surging house prices exacerbate the country’s already stymied population growth and economic prosperity. ... The study’s lead author, University of Sydney school of economics associate professor Stephen Whelan, said housing constitutes a major cost of raising children; so, as the cost of housing rises, so does the cost of having children in Australia. You can also read about this report at: [https://www.realestate.com.au/news/booming-home-prices-put-renters-off-having-kids-university-of-sydney-study-reveals/?rsf=ps:facebook:news:aa] You will find a link to the research paper at: [https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/12/20/hot-housing-market-puts-renters-off-having-more-kids.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/house-prices-up-birth-rates…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Families, Home ownership, Housing market.10 years of affordable rent
Jess McCabe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... 2011 was a key year for social housing. David Cameron’s coalition of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had been in power for one year. ... One of the first acts of the coalition government was the creation of a new tenure in England. Inside Housing covered the announcement with a front-page headline announcing: “The end of social housing”. Affordable rent was described by the new government as an “intermediate rent” tenure. But, unlike intermediate or key worker housing, it was to be let in the same way as social housing, and to the same tenants. Previously, social rents had been set using a formula determined by government, but in effect was substantially below market rents in much of the country. Affordable rent would be up to 80% of market rents. [Read on]
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/10-years-of-affo…
# History International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing.