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
‘I hope it was a wake-up call’: Welfare service honoured for intervention at Hambleton House
Jewel Topsfild The Age (Paywall)Months into the pandemic, Jane Barnes, the chief of staff of Wintringham, Australia’s largest aged care provider for the homeless, received an unusual phone call. There had been an outbreak of COVID-19 at Hambleton House, a home in Albert Park for people living with disabilities and mental illness, and all the residents had been evacuated. The Department of Health and Human Services had found an unlikely temporary home for them – a backpacker hostel in St Kilda – and urgently needed an organisation to take on their care. Ms Barnes – who last week won the Beth Thomson lifetime achievement award at the 2021 Victorian Homelessness Achievement Awards – is not afraid of a challenge.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/i-hope-it-was-a-wake…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Disability.Advocates say housing delays, lack of support services to blame amid WA homeless crisis
Nicolas Perpitch ABC (No paywall)The pain still runs deep for Claudette Smith as she remembers her cousin Jennifer, a homeless Noongar woman found dead outside Perth train station on August 12. The two grew up as sisters. ... Community groups have praised the government's $875 million spend on new social housing, but are calling for a similar significant investment in intensive support services for homeless people.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-06/advocates-social-housing-…
# Australia, Homelessness, Personal stories, Women.Danielle Wood: here’s a few home truths for the older generation, about the young
Jan Fisher The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Grattan Institute chief executive office Danielle Wood delivered a considered but scathing verdict on the world that Australia’s next generation will inherit at the annual John Button Oration held in Melbourne in November. ... Young people were struggling in a financial environment that was increasingly financially hostile, she said. Housing is becoming more expensive, the tax burden is increasing and job prospects and pay are flatlining. ... Wood's recommendations to improve policy [include] Improve housing affordability including boost housing supply by changing planning rules to allow more homes in the inner and middle rings of our capital cities, reducing tax breaks for investment in housing including reducing the capital gains tax discount to 25 per cent and winding back negative gearing, and exploring more innovative proposals such as shared-equity schemes.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/business/investment-deals/danielle…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.How the falling Australian dollar could affect interest rates
David Taylor ABC (Paywall)Australia's economy, by international standards is relatively small, but our dollar is among the most traded in the world. So when it moves by more than a cent or two (against a major currency like the US dollar), it tends to gain a bit of momentum.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-07/falling-australian-dollar…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Owners of flats near Tate Modern take privacy case to supreme court
Rachel Hall The Guardian (No paywall)On one side is Tate Modern. On the other are the owners of nearby luxury apartments objecting to what they regard as the prying eyes of visitors enjoying a viewing platform at Britain’s most visited gallery. ... Donal Nolan, a professor of private law at the University of Oxford, said it would be a difficult case for the supreme court, but ultimately it boils down to two key questions: “Can you bring a claim of this kind, and if you can, is the interference in this particular case unreasonable?” Nolan added that ordinarily questions of proximity and privacy would be solved through planning rules rather than litigation. “The question is whether you need this planning law backstop if the planning system doesn’t work as it perhaps should do,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/06/owners-of-f…
# Legal significance International, Privacy and access, Strata, Planning and development.Crisis housing boost for women in Walgett
Department of Communities & Justice (No paywall)Attorney General and Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence Mark Speakman said the $2.7 million refuge re-development will provide a safe and secure haven for up to 120 women and children each year, who’ve fled domestic abuse. “Women and children in crisis who are fleeing violent homes, often with very little, shouldn’t have to resort to sleeping in a car or couch surfing,” Mr Speakman said. “These new units in Walgett will not only provide safe, modern accommodation but, importantly, help connect individuals with local support services as well.”
https://www.dcj.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/media-releases/crisis-…
# NSW, Domestic violence, Families, Homelessness, State Government.Airbnb slams proposed new rules for WA holiday houses as strictest in the nation
Georgia Loney and Laura Birch ABC (No paywall)People who let out holiday homes in Western Australia might have to list their properties on a statewide register, and apply for permission to rent them out for more than 60 nights a year, under a draft government planning policy. Short-stay accommodation booking sites Airbnb and Stayz have criticised the WA government's move to regulate the sector, describing the draft proposals as among the strictest in the nation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-07/wa-airbnb-short-stay-acco…
# Australia, Rent, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.‘Goalposts have changed’: Lending clampdown cuts home buyers’ budgets
Elizabeth Redman The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Potential home buyers are trimming their expectations as a new lending clampdown leaves many with smaller budgets, cutting borrowing capacity by as much as 15 per cent. The maximum amount of money buyers can borrow was reduced last month as the bank regulator tries to ensure homeowners only take on manageable debts.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/goalposts-have-changed-lending-c…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.