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
‘We are very distressed’: Waverley aged care residents fear redevelopment plans
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Aged care residents in Sydney’s eastern suburbs are “full of fear” they will be left homeless by a redevelopment that opponents say will also block views of a historic mansion and lead to the bulldozing of century-old trees. ... Waverley councillor Elaine Keenan, from the Greens, has criticised the project, saying dozens of frail and elderly long-term residents had been asked to relocate. ... “We are very distressed and frightened about our precarious situation and the future,” the resident said in an email. “We feel unsafe, and full of fear at the prospect of homelessness.” The Uniting spokesman said residents were placed in nearby Uniting services or another provider following the closure of residential aged care at the site. Residents would not be relocated from independent living units for “some time”, he said. “We have not engaged residents under the [Retirement Villages] Act since announcing the redevelopment in 2017 and clearly advised residents who subsequently entered the village on rental agreements of our intention to redevelop the site.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-are-very-distressed-waver…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Health, Heritage listings, Homelessness, Housing market, Local Government, Older people, Planning and development.Rent prices continue to rise in NSW regional towns, pushing out locals
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Rapidly rising rents across regional NSW are pricing tenants out of their communities, with the cost of renting a home jumping by more than 20 per cent in some regions as locals struggle to compete against tree-changers moving in on Sydney wages.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/regional-rental-crisis-1096796/?u…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW, Young people.Rental squeeze means hundreds of teenagers need housing support on Gold Coast
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)Hundreds of teenagers on the Gold Coast need housing support due to surging rental prices and only seven crisis beds being available, a welfare group has warned. Mission Australia says the situation could worsen without increases to federal rental assistance programs and the expansion of social housing. "They're couch surfing or they're just not in a stable, safe living environment and that's really because of affordability," Gold Coast program manager Darren Stockman said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-24/hundreds-of-gold-coast-te…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Young people.Tenant awarded £3,500 from London council following damp and mould complaint
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)A council tenant living with damp and mould has received a £3,500 settlement from their landlord. The settlement comes more than two years after the tenant, who lives in a four-bedroom flat in Streatham, first made a complaint to Lambeth Council about the poor conditions. A survey of the resident’s property found evidence of damp and mould in three bedrooms, as well as the hallway, kitchen and bathrooms, the tenant’s solicitor said. Evidence of water damage was uncovered in the hallway, while a broken extractor fan in the bathroom left the room with ventilation, they added.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/tenant-awarded-3500-from-lo…
# International, Public and community housing, Mould.Liveable income and stable, affordable housing are basic needs
Steve Bevington (No paywall)Covid-19 has been overall a major disaster. The pandemic has caused significant distress and upheaval around the world. The most distressing aspect of COVID-19 being, of course, the loss of human life and the health crisis that continues to generate uncertainty in our lives. Strangely, some positive measures have been taken in Australia during this time to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in our communities. The COVID-19 payments provided to people on income support and those who lost their jobs during the pandemic temporarily lifted almost one million Australians out of poverty. In addition, actions taken by most state governments to temporarily house people sleeping rough provided respite to many thousands of people and undoubtedly prevented many COVID related deaths. Both measures – the increase in income support and provision of housing for people experiencing street homelessness – demonstrated that we can end poverty in Australia. A secure liveable income and stable, affordable housing are the two basic needs we have as humans. (Third Sector)
https://www.thirdsector.com.au/opinion-liveable-income-and-stabl…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.The climate crisis is global, but councils can offer local solutions
Stephen Smellie The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... At Cop26 this year, we’ll hear about diplomats and heads of state negotiating over targets, but when a river bank bursts or a storm hits, it’s our local councils that are left to clear up the mess. ... As we look to the future, the task facing council workers like me is to think how we make our homes and neighbourhoods more sustainable and more resilient, and maybe even fairer along the way. ... With the right national government support and planning, councils can use their economic power as major employers as well as owners of infrastructure, property and land, and procurers of goods and services, to be the agents of genuinely just transitions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/22/climate-cr…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Local Government.Tracey almost lost her family property to a big developer who claimed squatters' rights
Damien Carrick and Sophie Kesteven ABC (No paywall)When 62-year-old Tracey Higgins found herself locked in a legal battle over the ownership of her family's four-acre property in Campbelltown, Sydney, she was surprised by who she faced. It wasn't someone who had taken up residence. Instead, it was a retirement village developer. ... The operator of Australian Retirement Holdings was trying to use squatters' rights — otherwise known as 'adverse possession' — to claim ownership of the property. The hearing began on June 7, 2021, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. (The Law report)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-23/squatters-rights-fighting…
# Legal significance NSW, Squatting.NSW apartments: New defects insurance scheme to protect off-the-plan buyers
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Dodgy developers and bad builders who construct shoddy apartment towers that can lead to heartbreak and financial ruin for home-buyers are set to be driven out of NSW with a ground-breaking new defects insurance scheme. In a landmark move by the NSW government, off-the-plan apartment buyers will be offered 10-year insurance against defects in their building and phoenixing developers for the first time in nearly 20 years.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/nsw-apartments-new-defects-insura…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market.