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
Mount Isa's crisis housing shortage sees women escaping violence stay with abusive partners
Julia Andre ABC (No paywall)Domestic violence support worker Val Brown speaks to five women a day seeking refuge from domestic violence in the mining city of Mount Isa. Her job is to provide women with support plans for how they can escape threatening partners. But that job has become increasingly hard as crisis accommodation for domestic violence survivors has completely dried up.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-24/domestic-violence-housing…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Affordable housing, Homelessness.COVID-19: How the pandemic has led to a rise in 'the working homeless'
Jason Faerrell Sky News (No paywall)Florian Hasalla wakes up at 6:45am - the first in a line of sleeping bags alongside a building near to the Savoy Hotel in London. He packs up the cardboard box he's been using as a mattress - hides his sleeping bag in a wheelie bin and goes to Charing Cross station to use the bathroom to make himself respectable for work. By 8am he is on a construction site next to Buckingham Palace where he lugs rubble down scaffolding; a homeless man helping renovate some of London's most expensive properties.
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-how-the-pandemic-has-led-to-…
# International, Homelessness, Personal stories.Developers could help ease the housing crisis using vacant buildings and land, summit hears
Nicolas Perpitch ABC (No paywall)Former aged care homes, vacant buildings and unused church and government land should be transformed into affordable and social housing to address Western Australia's acute housing shortage, a conference has been told. The Housing Solutions Summit, convened by Shelter WA in Perth, brought together frontline service workers, the private sector and peak sector groups to propose ways to provide homes for those most at risk. Several called for the McGowan government to use some of its predicted $5 billion budget surplus to end the housing shortage. Foundation Housing chief executive Chris Smith said $1.5 billion from the surplus would deliver 3,500 new properties. ... But with no guarantee that will happen, the private sector is stepping up with other solutions.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-29/harnessing-the-private-se…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.‘I don’t want realism. I want magic’: behind the fantasy fueling our real estate voyeurism
Andrew Toland The Conversation (No paywall)Despite all the disruptions of the pandemic, property prices in Australian cities have continued their rise and housing affordability has become even more out of reach. But our current pandemic era seems to be witnessing an intensification of the escape into fantasy. Why do we exhibit an insatiable appetite for property voyeurism and fantasy at a time when young people, especially, are less and less likely to be able to afford housing at all?
https://theconversation.com/i-dont-want-realism-i-want-magic-beh…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.The families 'stuck' in England's overcrowded social homes
(No paywall)Families are trapped in overcrowded social housing because they cannot afford to privately rent a bigger one, ITV News Correspondent Daniel Hewitt reports.
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-07-27/i-dont-know-why-theyre-doing…
# Video International, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing affordability, Minimum habitability standards.Rental Opportunity of the Week: Proof Landlords Just Do Whatever the Hell They Want
Joel Golby (No paywall)But it’s London, The Broken City, so this is actually now a bedroom, for a single person to pay £750 a month to live in. I say “single person” because the advert insists upon it – “Single Person Only” – but also because it has a single bed in it, barely, so it does make you wonder why they insist upon that. Like: did they have couples applying? “Hey, there’s two of us. We’d like to cram ourselves slender into a thin single bed then drive each other to the verge of insanity by cooking and shitting and living and sleeping in the same small room, together, in a pandemic. (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avb79/sydenham-dulwich-londiren…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Real estate industry warns of 'perfect storm' for renters and investors
Lucy MacDonald ABC (No paywall)Ms Johns has been in her Kingston home for roughly six-and-a-half years. In that time the rent has only gone up by $35 a week, to $495 a week. But while she describes her landlord as "amazing", like most Australians, she would like to own a home. "There's always that risk that … my landlord could at the end of the year say 'I'm selling' and it's like well what next?" she said. ... "I'm thankful that my landlord hasn't jumped on the 'Let's raise prices just because we can', but I know other people aren't so fortunate and it's so tough out there." ... Kate Wadley has recently become a landlord, but she does not believe in charging the maximum rent. "The rent that we charge on our property that we have just purchased is more than enough to cover our mortgage repayments," she said.
"We made the decision that we would not overcharge even though we could. We could charge $100 a week more." She has set up a group called We Are Fair for landlords that share the same view as her.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-28/tasmanian-real-estate-ind…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.The Sydney suburb that’s been without proper internet since April
Natassia Chryanthos The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Residents in the south-west Sydney suburb of Claymore have been without reliable internet access or phone coverage for more than three months, straining the community’s efforts to work from home, learn remotely and maintain social connections during the city’s lockdown.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-suburb-that-s-bee…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas.