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
Housing 2030 study published covering 56 countries
(No paywall)A study has been published by The partnership of the UNECE, Housing Europe, UN Habitat team, with the financial support of the Irish Housing Finance Agency, Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, the Slovenian Ministry of Urban Planning and the Czech Ministry of Regional Development. The International Union of Tenants was one of many contributors with good practice examples. It is our pleasure to share with you the published Report and bring to your attention to the extensive and searchable Website Housing2030.org which brings many good practice illustrations to the fore. Go to: [https://www.housing2030.org/] (International Union of Tenants]
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/housing-2030-study-published-cove…
# International, Affordable housing, Landlords and agents.I live in an apartment. How can I cut my risk of getting COVID?
Geoff Hamner The Conversation (No paywall)Governments are pressing ahead with home quarantine for returning travellers and people are isolating at home due to COVID-19. So now is a good time to think about what you can do to reduce your risk of infection if you live in an apartment.
https://theconversation.com/i-live-in-an-apartment-how-can-i-cut…
# Hot topic Australia, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19.‘Crisis’ of Aboriginal homelessness in sights of multimillion dollar plan
Cameron Gooley The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A $12 million plan to reduce homelessness in the state’s Aboriginal communities has been welcomed by some First Nations service providers, but they warn far more needs to be done to fix an ongoing housing “crisis”. The NSW government has pledged to launch an Aboriginal Homelessness Sector Growth Project by April, with a goal to help Indigenous organisations run more support programs for at-risk people. ... The program will be aimed specifically at southern NSW, the New England region, and Western Sydney, and the government has promised to engage with local Aboriginal community controlled organisations (ACCOs) to co-design service models.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/crisis-of-aboriginal-homeles…
# NSW, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.After Ida, How Can Affordable Housing Withstand Climate Impacts?
Alex Williamson (No paywall)When the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck the Northeast in early September, the region was inundated by devastating flash floods. Across four states, the storm killed more than 40 people, caused up to $24 billion in property damage, and knocked out power to 150,000 homes. New Jersey and New York City were hit particularly hard—30 New Jersey residents drowned in their homes and vehicles, and in NYC, 13 residents died, most drowning in their basement apartments. ... What lessons can Ida offer to affordable housing managers and owners whose properties are at risk of extreme weather? (Shelterforce)
https://shelterforce.org/2021/10/14/after-ida-how-can-affordable…
# International, Affordable housing, Climate change, Landlords and agents.End of COVID disaster payments looms large for stressed tenants
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)More tenants could find themselves struggling to pay rent as they emerge from lockdown, faced with losing income support payments before they can fully return to work. With the end of the COVID disaster payment fast approaching, more tenants could find themselves in rental stress or having to vacate a property they can no longer afford, tenant groups fear. ... The looming end of the payment could cause significant problems for those still unemployed or underemployed, said Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants’ Union of NSW. “It’s very contingent on how [the city’s reopening and businesses] go. We know there is a huge level of unemployment and underemployment at the moment – a lot of people are not doing as well as they were before COVID hit – so we think it’s important to ensure the support continues while there is a need for it,” he said. Throughout lockdown, NSW tenants who’ve lost at least 25 per cent of their income have been protected by an eviction moratorium, as long as they continue to pay at least 25 per cent of their rent. The moratorium is scheduled to end next month and will be followed by a three-month transition period. Landlords have been also able to access up to $4500 in financial assistance – to be passed on to tenants via a rent reduction – or a land tax benefit. That sum would help bridge the shortfall for a tenant paying just a quarter of the rent across much of the city until December, Mr Patterson Ross said.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tenants-bracing-for-end-of-covid-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.‘The hardest thing you can do’: Why there’s little progress on tax reform
Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Politicians on both sides of the nation’s ideological divide are failing to demonstrate the will, ability or political clout required to overhaul the tax system, experts warn. ... Former Labor leader Bill Shorten took some of the biggest tax changes in years to the 2016 and 2019 elections, including ... The opposition had also promised to halve the capital gains tax deduction and restrict negative gearing to new investment properties as part of a plan to re-balance power in the housing market away from investors. But while many academics and economists were supportive of these proposals, Labor failed to drum up enough support. Now, with Anthony Albanese as Opposition Leader, these tax changes are off the table as the 2022 election looms. For several experts, including former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser and former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, Labor’s decision to backtrack on these changes is fast closing the door on reform altogether. “I have been rather disappointed, to put it mildly, with the Labor Party’s … walking away from the tax measures it took to the last election,” Fraser says. “This certainly dismays me. It will dismay a lot of people who cling rather flimsily, myself included, to having a better, fairer Australian society and tax reform has to be part of that.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-hardest-thing-you-ca…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Robyn got her landlord's approval for NDIS-funded home improvements. Now her lease is not being renewed
Liz Gwynn ABC (No paywall)Robyn Butterworth lives with multiple sclerosis and was relieved when the National Disability Insurance Scheme agreed to pay for and install about $15,000 in modifications to her rental home, where she hoped to live long term. But now the mother of one has not been able to sleep or eat properly since learning last week that her lease at the property in the small town of Bagdad, north of Hobart, would not be renewed. The mobility improvements took 12 months from start to finish and include an extension to the deck area, a new outside handrail, an automatic bidet toilet, a shower handrail and new lever taps. The washing line was also moved closer to the house for easier access. Ms Butterworth said the modifications have greatly improved her quality of life, because multiple sclerosis affects her strength and balance and causes her severe fatigue. "Since I've had these modifications done I don't trip or fall like I used to … I felt safer from day one, it was a huge relief," Ms Butterworth said. However, three months after the mobility improvements to the house were carried out, Ms Butterworth's landlord Timothy Richards informed her that she would have to move out at the end of her current lease term to make way for his mother.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-15/ndis-funded-rental-home-i…
# Australia, Eviction, Disability, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.Thousands of homes among their gum trees: the assault on Sydney’s last healthy koalas
Elizabeth Farrelly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In June 2020, a NSW Upper House inquiry, having heard much learned scientific evidence, found that without urgent action “the koala will become extinct in NSW before 2050”. The Campbelltown koalas are the last chlamydia-free population in Greater Sydney and one of the few thriving colonies in the state. You might think all those things would stop even the baddest of baddies fighting in court for the right to endanger these koalas further. Yet Lendlease has just done exactly that, successfully defending itself against a legal attempt by Save Sydney’s Koalas to force it into better manners. The development in question is Lendlease’s Figtree Hill, an immense and controversial redevelopment of a large chunk of the historic Mt Gilead farm south of Campbelltown. Some 1700 houses are planned for stage 1 and an unknown number for stage 2, some four times as big. None of this is good.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/thousands-of-h…
# Hot topic NSW, Planning and development.