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
Airbnb is eating the neighbourhood
Jane Hearn (No paywall)Last month the NSW “Airbnb Policy” was quietly gazetted by the Minister for Planning, Mr Robert Stokes MP. This is a major planning reform that permits all housing to be used for short stay tourism. It takes some chutzpah to give in to tourist Platforms in the middle of pandemic with housing prices soaring. (City Hub)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/06/residents-vote-no-to-airbnb/
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.UK: up to 400,000 renters told to expect eviction notices
Marc Da Silva (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Around 400,000 renting households, or 5% of all renters, have either been served an eviction notice or have been told they may be evicted, it has been claimed. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is waning that about a million renting households are worried about being evicted in the next three months – 11% of all renters – now that the eviction ban has come to an end. The temporary ban on bailiff-enforced evictions introduced in March last year and extended several times since, provided much-needed security to renters at a time of profound economic and social disruption. (International Union of Tenants News)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/uk-up-to-400000-renters-told-to-e…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Oversupply, pandemic hit Sydney, Melbourne apartment rents
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Record-low interest rates are fuelling a housing boom across the country, but one part of the market is lagging behind. Weekly rents for inner-city apartments in Sydney and Melbourne are well below where they were this time last year, according to data from CoreLogic and SQM Research. Australia’s closed international border has left a hole in the inner-city rental market that is usually filled by international students.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/06/16/sydney-me…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.NT's urban public housing sector in 'crisis' as priority applicants face a two-year wait
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)The letter telling Tracey Myles that government housing was on the horizon turned up in April, during a period of homelessness lasting months. The mental health worker had recently lost her job, was evicted from a private rental and says she frequently sought shelter in a caravan that leaked during the Top End wet season's heavy rain. She said it could happen to anyone. ... According to the Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities, the NT's 1,544 priority urban public housing applicants face an average wait time of 23 months.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-17/nt-urban-public-housing-p…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness.Sydney, Melbourne landlords counting the cost of international student losses
Rachel Wells Domain (No paywall)Landlords in Sydney and Melbourne who rely heavily on international students are asking up to 10 per cent less for rent than they were a year ago just to keep their properties occupied.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-melbourne-landlords-counti…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Students.I’m a CEO sleeping out for Vinnies, but 30 years ago I really was sleeping rough
Jason Blaiklock The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s quite terrifying to remember, but 30 years ago I was living rough. I was on the street, just down the road from the Matthew Talbot Hostel in Sydney, where the St Vincent de Paul Society might have given me shelter. Then, however, I didn’t have the capacity to reach out for help.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-m-a-ceo-sleeping-out-for-v…
# NSW, Homelessness, Personal stories.Born Evicted: Eviction During Pregnancy Worsens Birth Outcomes and Child Wellbeing
Gracie Himmelstein and Matthew Desmond (No paywall)Disparities in health at birth expose fissures in the American dream. The conditions of a child’s gestation and birth—social and environmental conditions over which they have no control—help or hinder a child’s ability to grow and flourish. Birth outcomes impact a person’s health and wellbeing across their lifetime, as well as multiple generations within families and communities. In a March 1st JAMA Pediatrics journal article, we examine how evictions impact birth weight, prematurity, and infant mortality. We find that infants born to mothers who have an eviction filed against them during their pregnancy are more likely to be born prematurely or low birth weight, and may also have higher mortality compared to infants born to mothers evicted at times other than pregnancy. In other words, in utero subjection to eviction harms infant health and development.
# International, Eviction, Rent, Health, Women.Australia needs more social housing. That’s it
Paul Dutton The Guardian (No paywall)Our society is heading for a collapse unless we protect the most vulnerable instead of holding them to a higher standard than the rest of us ... There’s been a number of media stories about the growing rates of homelessness in Australia and the complete failure to even articulate the issue in passing by the same prime minister who has said that he lays his hands on people to provide them with comfort and healing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/australia-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness.