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
When renters organise, we can win!
Make Renting Fair Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)We're bringing you the second in our event series today, 11th of November, this time hearing from Renters United in Aotearoa! Today is the day when the protections for renters in NSW that have been in place throughout this latest lockdown will be ending. But why should we accept a return to a pre-COVD 'normal'? Why can't we push for a better, fairer renting system? Come along, hear about Renters United's successful renter organising, and bring your thoughts, questions and ideas about what it looks like to Make Renting Fair.
https://www.facebook.com/events/844601686215689/?acontext=%7B%22…
# NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform.How our cities work: essential lessons from lockdown
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)As Melbourne and Sydney roar back to life it might be tempting to forget all about the lockdowns of 2021. But the pandemic drew attention to vulnerabilities in our two biggest cities that often remain invisible. It would be foolish to ignore them. Cities are always marked by differences of wealth and income. But the lockdowns shone new light on stark geographical inequalities in Melbourne and Sydney. ... The pandemic has drawn attention to where our essential workers live. Holloway found that in Sydney it’s mostly in the city’s west and south-west, while in Melbourne, the highest proportion of essential workers reside in the north and west growth areas on the city’s outer edges. These locations also recorded a high share of infections during this year’s Delta outbreak. Sydney’s west and south-west also experienced the most stringent lockdown restrictions. A key reason for the high concentration of essential workers in those places is the cost of housing. A growing share of essential workers on middle and lower incomes has had little choice but to locate in outer metropolitan growth areas where housing is more affordable.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/how-our-cities-work-…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market.Privacy Commissioner cracks down on rental sector: What landlords can and can't ask
Anne Gibson (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Landlords mainly owned one to two properties "and there will be some who don't get the message", he warned. Property owners can't ask tenants for information on personal characteristics protected under the Human Rights Act. That includes asking about relationships or family status, political opinion or religious or ethical belief, colour, race or ethnicity, physical or mental disability or illness and age except whether the tenant is over 18. Nor can landlords collect information about employment status or whether someone is unemployed, on a benefit or on ACC, sexual orientation or gender identity, whether tenants have experienced or suffering current family violence, spending habits like asking for bank statements showing transactions, employment history or social media URLs. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/privacy-commissioner-cracks-…
# International, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.With Cases Piling Up, an Eviction Crisis Unfolds Step by Step
Sophie Kasakove The New York Times (Paywall)From the United States ... In Indianapolis, eviction courts are packed as judges make their way through a monthslong backlog of cases. In Detroit, advocates are rushing to knock on the doors of tenants facing possible eviction. In Gainesville, Fla., landlords are filing evictions at a rapid pace as displaced tenants resort to relatives’ couches for places to sleep or seek cheaper rents outside the city. It is not the sudden surge of evictions that tenants and advocates feared after the Supreme Court ruled in August that President Biden’s extension of the eviction moratorium was unconstitutional. Instead, what’s emerging is a more gradual eviction crisis that is increasingly hitting communities across the country, especially those where the distribution of federal rental assistance has been slow, and where tenants have few protections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/us/evictions-crisis-us.html
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Housing market.‘I would end up on the street’: Pensioner in legal fight with Gerry Harvey’s trust over home eviction
Charlotte Grieve The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A terminally ill woman has taken on business tycoon Gerry Harvey with a lawsuit to fight a forced eviction from a property that she lived in rent-free with her now deceased husband for more than eight years. ... In an affidavit, Mr Harvey claims the property was never intended for Ms Luker to remain in permanently and while sympathetic to her situation, he now wishes to sell the property. Whether Ms Luker has any legal claim to the land will now be decided by the courts. Ben Butler writes in 'The Guardian' on the same matter at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/09/gerry-harvey-taken-to-court-by-longtime-friends-widow-in-bid-to-stop-eviction]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/i-would-end-up-on-the-…
# NSW, Eviction, Personal stories.E-news, November 2021
National Shelter (No paywall)Adrian Pisarski, Executive Officer, is retiring; The National Housing Investment Finance Corporation Review; Searching for renters ... and more
https://mailchi.mp/dfddb09ebcc8/enews-november-4834390?e=d6b612f…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform.Mum’s heartbreak at endless rental battle, with 48 rejections in four months
(Paywall)A mother of three young children has applied for 48 homes in four months – and 48 times her heart has been broken. Paige Robertson-Wood is worried she and the children, aged 10, 8 and 2, will spend a second Christmas without a place to call home. “It’s my children I worry about,” she said. “I think landlords see I’m a single parent with three children and on Centrelink and they think we will destroy their house. “They discriminate against single parents and I’ve been told I should get a babysitter and turn up without the kids, but that is very hard. (The Mercury)
https://www.themercury.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TMWEB…
# Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Families, Homelessness, Landlords and agents, Women.Federal government receives an F on housing in ANU's health inequity report card
Finn McHugh Canberra Times (No paywall)The Coalition has entrenched health inequities by failing on housing during COVID-19, an Australian National University report says. The ANU has released its health equity report card, ranking federal and state responses to the pandemic across housing, employment, and income support.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7502226/anu-gives-coaliti…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Housing market.