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
‘Dying on the streets’: at least 44 homeless people have died in Perth this year
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)At least 44 people known to homelessness services died in Perth in the first nine months of 2021, researchers have found. Associate prof Lisa Wood of the University of Western Australia said hospital records matched with client lists from service providers confirmed all had experienced homelessness in the past four years. About 30 were known to have had no fixed address or had been rough sleeping when they died, Wood said, while other cases were still being assessed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/17/dying-on-…
# Australia, Health, Homelessness.‘My family were sacrificed in that area. My blood is ingrained in the soil’
Billie Eder The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tracy Howie can think of nothing worse than seeing “rooftops, jetties and boats” dot the old asylum at Peat Island on the Hawkesbury River. “There is a highly significant engraving site around the Peat Island area, and it is directly related to our creation story,” the Indigenous community leader said. Yet, her worst fears could be realised if a state government proposal for tourist facilities and accommodation on Peat Island and nearby Mooney Mooney is approved.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/my-family-were-sacrificed-in…
# NSW, Heritage listings, Housing market, Planning and development.‘Nationwide problem’ of poor quality housing
Alex Thomson (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... We spoke to the designer Wayne Hemingway, an adviser to the Mayor of London on housing and design and a former chair of Building for Life, and Chris Thompson, managing director of Citu, the developers of the Climate Innovation District in Leeds. (Channel 4)
https://www.channel4.com/news/nationwide-problem-of-poor-quality…
# Video International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.'Crime scene': Outrage overe $850pw rental
Alex Turner-Cohen (Paywall)From Melbourne ... Renters are outraged after being asked to fork out $800 a week on a house that is literally falling apart. The expensive rental can boast a ripped up kitchen, a backyard with graffiti on it and dirty walls as well as an exposed light bulb dangling precariously from the stairwell.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/outrage-over…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Northern Ireland social landlords extend agreement not to evict over pandemic-related arrears
Nathaniel Barker Inside Housing (Paywall)Social landlords in Northern Ireland have agreed to extend their commitment not to evict tenants who have fallen into rent arrears as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deirdre Hargey, the region’s communities minister, wrote to housing associations and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) asking them to extend the agreement until 4 May 2022. ... “I have asked the housing executive and housing associations to continue to honour this voluntary agreement until May 2022, in line with my recent decision to extend the emergency 12-week notice-to-quit period in the private rented sector.”
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/northern-ireland-socia…
# International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19.Greens promise huge cash splash to build 1 million affordable homes
James Masola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Greens will fight for 1 million publicly owned, affordable homes to be built over 20 years if they hold the balance of power after the next federal election. The cost of the ambitious election policy – which the Parliamentary Budget Office warns is “uncertain and highly sensitive to the speed of construction” – is an estimated $7.5 billion over four years, and $22.9 billion over 10 years. ... Under the plan, a new federal Housing Trust would be established to construct and manage the new housing, in partnership with states, territories and community housing providers. ... Tenants in Trust homes would pay the lower of either 25 per cent of their income or market rent.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-promise-huge-cash…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Federal Government.‘I just want to go home’: the locked-out Queenslanders trapped in no man’s land
Susan Chenery The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of people are stuck in northern NSW, living in cars and tents – and running out of time. ... Surrounded by cane fields that stretch out to the Border Ranges, the showgrounds in the northern New South Wales town of Murwillumbah are normally spectacularly pretty. But this week, when the ranges were lost in mist and rain was coming down, it was decidedly desultory. In the camping area of the showgrounds, people have set up makeshift homes. Some this week were succumbing to depression and despair. Everything was wet: feet, socks, bedding. Across the border in Queensland 20km away, they have homes, lives, jobs, families. Life goes on mostly as normal. There are estimated to be hundreds of people stuck in the border zone between NSW and Queensland; many living as though homeless, reduced to accepting donations from the community; locked out, helpless, displaced and desperate.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/16/i-just-want-to-g…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.On brink of evacuation after defects warning
(No paywall)A perfect storm of disagreeing experts, extreme caution, genuine fears for safety, has taken an apartment block to the brink of being evacuated this week. Add in concerns about property values and NSW’s hopeless consumer protections for apartment owners and the residents of the Vicinity apartment tower in Canterbury, in Sydney’s south-west could be in for a rough ride. (Flat Chat) There's an earlier blog on 'Flat Chat' at: [https://www.flat-chat.com.au/unsw-unit-defects/]
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.