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
Older Australians being pushed to the brink of homelessness
Nikki Stefanoff Pro bono Australia (No paywall)New data reveals the number of older Australians experiencing rent stress has increased by 11 per cent over the last year – prompting advocates to call for the government to increase CRA. ... Older Australians are shown to be particularly vulnerable with the number of households experiencing rent stress increasing from 40,562 to 45,199 between 2019 and 2020 — an uptick of 11 per cent over the course of 12 months.
https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/07/older-australians-b…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Housing affordability.This new refuge in Melbourne is providing much-needed support to older homeless women
Gloria Kalache SBS (No paywall)Providing women aged over 50 a safe haven and access to services helping them rebuild their lives, The Gardenhouse is believed to be the first facility of its kind in Australia.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/this-new-refuge-in-melbourne-is-prov…
# Australia, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Cars hired for a place to sleep, Lake Macquarie homelessness forum hears
Sage Swinton (Paywall)The online forum involved more than 60 people from various groups and organisations who deal with homelessness. Providers, including Nova for Women and Children, Hunter Tenants' Advice and Advocacy Service, Cardiff's Our Backyard, Hunter Community Alliance and Baptist Care, spoke about the dire situation they and their clients currently faced. It's pretty much in crisis at the moment. We've heard people are sleeping in their cars, but also hiring private rental cars and sleeping in those because there's no other option. There's only around a 0.2 per cent vacancy rate of rental properties and the rental market is well above the affordability rate. It should only be around 30 per cent of a person's income, but it's much higher than that at the moment and it would be causing a lot of financial distress to families. It's really middle income earners that are affected, people who haven't been homeless before. It's not just low socioeconomic people who are impacted. There's people who are landlords themselves. They're leasing out those properties and renting themselves, but they're being evicted from the place that they live in so they're sort of between a rock and a hard place. (Newcastle Herald)
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7322375/cars-hired-for-…
# NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.'We thought we were Australian’: Melbourne tower lockdown lives on in legacy of trauma
Margaret Simons The Guardian (No paywall)We don’t realise the value of suburban rhythms, or even see them clearly, until they are ripped away. There are the children clattering up the hill to school and the queue at the post office – including so many ethnicities, every form of dress. There are the men hanging out in the African cafes and the elderly Chinese in tai chi classes at the foot of the public housing towers. We don’t see the premise that we are safe and free or the implicit promise that those from war-torn lands who have been accepted as refugees can become Australian. That they belong. One year ago, at 4pm on a chilly winter afternoon in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, many of those assumptions collapsed. ... Nine public housing towers, built as part of the postwar slum clearance and now looming over the gentrified inner suburbs of North Melbourne and Flemington, were placed into a hard lockdown with no warning. This remains the most severe Covid outbreak response implemented in Australia. Never before, nor since, have restrictions on movement been imposed without warning.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/04/we-though…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.Meet your Waterloo: the public realm deserves better than this airbrushed inner-city Camelot
Elizabeth Farrelly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s a strange illogic that makes us interpret government harshness – border cruelty, welfare cutbacks, pre-emptive heritage demolitions, mass tree-lopping, hyper-dense developments – as good financial management. If it hurts, it has to be good, especially if it hurts someone else. There’s no evidence such harshness makes the world a better place. After 40 years, we know trickle-down is as real as the tooth fairy. And it’s never the wealthy who are hurt. ... But public ownership and vulnerable occupancy make soft targets for harsh policies. This week, they allowed Planning Minister Rob Stokes to rezone Waterloo South for more than four times the existing dwelling numbers, largely private. ... The result is down-the-line neoliberal heartlessness in action: the wholesale destruction of a vital and self-supporting community – a community that runs its own support groups and bicycle-mending workshops – for the sake of yet another hyper-dense Green Square lookalike. That we still can’t lift our sights higher than this is, quite simply, depressing. ... What should happen instead? Government should prioritise the public realm – including the public housing. It should create beautiful streets and lanes, set building heights to ensure sun access to streets and apartments, plant mature trees, install street furniture and choreograph the public realm around public delight. It should take a leaf out of Sirius architect Tao Gofers’ book and work to ensure those with least access to our common wealth have dignified streets and living spaces. This takes money, time and expertise – not much, but some.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/meet-your-waterloo-the-publi…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Human rights, Local Government, State Government.Evictions of Aboriginal families in Perth under scrutiny, as FOI documents released
Claire Moodie and Alex Mann ABC (No paywall)Nicole Shegog turns her head away and the tears start to fall as she recalls a bailiff appearing on her doorstep in Perth's southern suburbs in the run up to Christmas 2015. It was late in the day and according to Ms Shegog, the man handed a letter to her goddaughter, who was 14 at the time, saying the family had until the morning to leave as the locks were being changed at 10am the next day. ... Successive state governments have consistently said statistics on the number of Aboriginal families and children being evicted are not available. ... Shelter WA chief executive Michelle MacKenzie is hoping the new Housing Minister will mean a new era of collaboration and transparency.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-03/aboriginal-tenants-evicte…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Eviction, Public and community housing, Homelessness, State Government.Rental vacancy rate: inner-city Sydney, Melbourne rental markets pick up as new tenants move in
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Rental markets in Australia’s two largest cities have staged a comeback, with the number of available inner-city rental properties halving since the depths of the COVID crisis as new tenants move in, new data shows. ... New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed the number of people aged 75 and over had been pushed into rental stress, that is, spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, even when they are receiving Commonwealth rental assistance. ... Those over 65 had been the fastest rising age group looking for assistance from homelessness services, many for the first time. ... They often go without — either healthy food or medications — before asking for help.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/capital-city-vacancy-rates-tighte…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Older people.Tracking the impact of COVID-19 in Victoria, Australia: Shocks, vulnerability and insurances among residents of share houses
Katrina Raynor and Laura Panza (No paywall)Our research examines the impact of COVID-19 on members of share houses in the state of Victoria, Australia. This cohort is more likely to be young, casually employed, living in informal arrangements and at risk of homelessness than the broader population. ... We surveyed 1052 share house occupants in June 2020. We found dramatic results, with 74% losing their job or having their hours reduced, 47% experiencing a reduction in their financial situation and 50% reporting that their mental health had deteriorated. These outcomes were worse for young people, casual employees or immigrants. Our research highlights the positive influence of social support for low-income individuals. We find that government social welfare payments are the most impactful form of insurance, calling for a greater appreciation of the role of social welfare in supporting resilience following a disaster. (ScienceDirect)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275121002…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Share houses, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Young people.