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
Heritage rooming houses shut as pandemic hits vulnerable tenants
Simon Johanson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The pandemic is forcing many of Melbourne’s rooming houses to shut their doors as social housing groups leave the sector and move vulnerable tenants to better digs. ... [Social housing group Unison chief executive] James King said the shift towards better apartment-style accommodation has accelerated as a result of COVID-19 after operators realised people living in close quarters couldn’t self isolate because of shared facilities like bathrooms and toilets, making them vulnerable to the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/heritage-rooming-house…
# Australia, Boarders and lodgers, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Canada’s housing crisis needs answers — but first we need to ask the right questions
Jim Dunn The Conversation (No paywall)The struggle to match housing costs to incomes affects everyone in Canada. It impacts not only people who struggle to afford a place to live, but health care, education, the economy and quality of life in general. Housing is a critical piece of our social infrastructure. It is literally the platform on which most other aspects of social life depend. For growing numbers who either don’t have a home at all, or who must spend large proportions of their incomes on shelter — the normal affordability benchmark says shelter costs (rent/mortgage plus taxes plus utilities) should not exceed 30 per cent — the hardships are real.
https://theconversation.com/canadas-housing-crisis-needs-answers…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Disability, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, LGBTIQ+, Older people, Race and ethnicity.Miami building collapse search stretches to day six with 11 dead, 150 still missing
ABC (No paywall)A letter written only weeks ago has emerged in which residents were warned structural problems in the Miami building that collapsed last week had "gotten significantly worse" and owners needed to pay a hefty price to get them fixed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-30/miami-building-collapse-f…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.BIS warns on house price rises, run-up in government debt amid ultra-low interest rates
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)The global central bank for central banks warns the path out of the pandemic will be "bumpy", with looming risks from ultra-cheap debt and surging house prices as interest rates eventually start rising. ... The factors were the same in most places: increased working from home increased demand for housing, while low interest rates made home ownership cheaper and more attractive relative to renting.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-30/bis-annual-report-house-p…
# Australia, Housing market.Charities still wary of updated plan to change governance standards
Luke Michael Pro bono Australia (No paywall)The federal government has made changes to its controversial proposal to amend charitable governance standards, but advocates believe the plan will still have a chilling impact on the sector. ... The sector believes this proposal – which is part of a government crackdown on “activist organisations masquerading as charities” – could lead to charities being deregistered for something as simple as tweeting in support of a protest that accidentally ventures onto private land, or providing support to whistleblowers. ... Alice Drury, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, told Pro Bono News that while [changes from the original wording] were a step in the right direction, the proposal still served to silence important advocacy by Australian charities.
https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/06/charities-still-war…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government.‘Defects are rife’: Miami-style building collapse could happen in Australia
Cathy Sherry The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The collapse of Champlain Towers in Miami, Florida should elicit sympathy and fear in equal measure. Florida is the birthplace of resort-style high rise residential development that has been copied in cities around the world, including Australia.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/defects-are-rife-miami-style-bui…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Kitchen connection: How a cookbook helped locked down public housing residents heal
Jewel Topsfield The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Deepa Gupta had just moved into a public housing estate in North Melbourne last year when she was banned from leaving her apartment for five days. ... More than 3000 of the city’s most disadvantaged residents were confined to their flats and police surrounded the housing estates. ... A year later Ms Gupta and other residents from those public housing estates have come together to create a cookbook to reconnect the community after the trauma of the hard lockdown.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/kitchen-connection-how-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.Sick of 12-month leases? Here's how to find a long-term rental
Grace Jennings-Edquist ABC (No paywall)If you'd like to call somewhere home for the long haul but you can't afford to buy, you might be keen on the idea of a long-term lease. ... Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive officer of the Tenants' Union of NSW, [says] "There is certainly a cohort of landlords who self-manage who will say, 'Barring anything else we're happy for you to stay for a long time. Just the signal that they're not using an agent means … that is the place you might find landlords who are looking to do something different." But these private rentals can have a downside. "There's a big divide within the tenant experience" when it comes to landlords who manage their own properties, says Mr Patterson Ross. (ABC Everyday)
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/how-to-find-a-long-term-rental-h…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Starting a tenancy, Housing market.