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
Innovative Housing First homelessness strategy faces regional WA housing shortage hurdle
Georgia Loney and Zoe Keenan ABC (No paywall)A long-awaited program that was intended to be a 'game-changer' in tackling homelessness in regional Western Australia is being hampered by an acute shortage of social housing. The $9.4 million program started in Perth and Bunbury in June with the aim of funding caseworkers to provide intensive support to find suitable housing for people without a home. But caseworkers say the current housing crisis and an acute shortage of social housing mean it is proving near impossible in the short term. The Housing First strategy aims to find permanent housing tailored to the specific needs of each person, along with support to tackle social issues including drug and alcohol dependency. Service provider Anglicare said the Housing First program was facing a basic challenge of there not being enough suitable social housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/housing-first-homelessnes…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, State Government.Renting during the COVID-19 pandemic in Great Britain: the experiences of private tenants
Adriana Mihaela Soaita (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, a set of far reaching emergency measures have been implemented ... Private tenants’ difficulties have been recognized in the COVID-19 policy package, for instance, by temporarily delaying eviction and increasing social assistance. However, even in ‘ordinary’ times, the challenges faced by private tenants are broader and deeper than acknowledged by these emergency measures. ... While private tenants’ plight has been long in the making in the UK and may not be fully addressed in a short timeframe, the COVID-19 crisis invites us to reevaluate the role of the PRS in the housing system and the extent to and the means by which it (can) deliver good, secure and affordable homes. [You may wish to skip to 'Chapter 6. Conclusions'.] (UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence)
https://www.thinkhouse.org.uk/site/assets/files/2405/cache0621.p…
# Research alert International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.The Promises and Failures of the “Cancel Rent” Movement
Cea Weaver (No paywall)Eighteen months ago, COVID-19 forced millions of people to reckon with a long-standing crisis of housing insecurity in the United States. Before the pandemic, millions of people could not afford their housing costs: 75% of low income families were paying more than half their income on rent, and just 1 in 4 people who needed public rent relief received it. By the fall of 2020, as many as 43% of the nation’s renters were at risk of eviction. It was in this context that the demand to “Cancel Rent” rippled across the country. And in New York, the housing movement was well prepared. Less than a year earlier, in June 2019, we had defeated the most powerful lobby in New York State, winning sweeping tenant protections — the strongest in the country — and expanding rent regulations for the first time in decades. In 2020, facing a deadly pandemic and an attendant economic crisis, the campaign to Cancel Rent animated hundreds of protests, rallies, and the largest coordinated rent strike in decades. But despite this historic mobilization and the horrifying proportions of the crisis, New York State did not “cancel rent.” Instead, the State passed the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) — a temporary program to distribute $2.7 billion in federal money to landlords for COVID-19 back-rent. So far, the program has distributed a paltry number of checks, and forces tenants and landlords to spend about two hours to apply — if they’re not blocked by myriad technical glitches. (New York Focus)
https://www.nysfocus.com/2021/07/30/cancel-rent-promises-failure…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market.Tenant News
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest stories from Tenant News ... Lockdown safety net: our analysis; Renters' Guide to COVID – updated; Access during lockdown; Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues; Young renters: We hear you!; A day in the life of a Tenant Advocate; and lots more news
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=29c79d2825cb376b3f0b06385&id…
# Must read NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform.Eviction Freeze Set to Lapse as Biden Housing Aid Effort Lags
Glenn Thrush, Matthew Goldstein and Conor Dougherty The New York Times (No paywall)A nationwide moratorium on residential evictions is set to expire on Saturday after a last-minute effort by the Biden administration to win an extension failed, putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter, while tens of billions in federal funding intended to pay their back rent sit untapped. The expiration was a humbling setback for President Biden, whose team has tried for months to fix a dysfunctional emergency rent relief program to help struggling renters and landlords. Running out of time and desperate to head off a possible wave of evictions, the White House abruptly shifted course on Thursday, throwing responsibility to Congress and prompting a frenzied — and ultimately unsuccessful — rescue operation by Democrats in the House on Friday. The collapse of those efforts reflected the culmination of months of frustration, as the White House pushed hard on states to speed housing assistance to tenants — with mixed results — before the moratorium expired. Hampered by a lack of action by the Trump administration, which left no real plan to carry out the program, Mr. Biden’s team has struggled to build a viable federal-local funding pipeline, hindered by state governments that view the initiative as a burden and the ambivalence of many landlords. As a result, the $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program, to date, disbursed only $3 billion — about 7 percent of what was supposed to be a crisis-averting infusion of cash. Also, check out the same story in The Guardian entitled: 'Eviction crisis looms after Biden and Congress fail to extend Covid ban' at [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/31/eviction-moratorium-ends-biden-congress-covid-ban-democrats-republicans] Again, check out Richard Luscombe's article in The Guardian entitled: 'Evictions crisis: Ocasio-Cortez says Democrats cannot blame Republicans' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/01/evictions-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-democrats-blame-republicans]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/politics/eviction-moratori…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.Update on COVID-19 Public Health Orders
(No paywall)Check out 'Inspections and entry to rental properties; and more here (The Letterbox)
https://comms.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6100f5d944f4e79…
# Hot topic NSW, Privacy and access, Rent, Repairs, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.COVID-19: Lockdown support for Greater Sydney tenants
(No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force for Greater Sydney and have been extended for at least another four weeks until Saturday, 28 August. Here’s what you need to know about the lockdown and where to get tenancy support.
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Privacy and access, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.COVID has deepened the 'housing crisis' in Indigenous communities, and residents are speaking out
Isabella Higgins ABC (No paywall)Lockdowns are tough no matter where you live, but staying at home when there's four generations under one roof can be especially difficult. For some Indigenous communities around the country, this has been the common story of the pandemic, with residents speaking out about the enormous challenges they've faced. ... Indigenous leaders say the pandemic has deepened a long-running "housing crisis" in communities, and have called for urgent investment. ... It's estimated about one in five Indigenous Australians are living in a crowded home, and more than 34 per cent are in remote areas, according to the latest census data. ... The housing shortage was only one part of the problem, with many of the current stock in Indigenous communities requiring serious maintenance and repairs, Ms Oscar said. About 29 per cent of Indigenous people were living in a dwelling with a major structural problem, according to a 2019 analysis by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/covid-restrictions-highli…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.