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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Tenants left without financial help face tough road out of COVID-19 lockdown
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Victorian tenants who have been unable to work through the recent lockdown will struggle to afford to eat let alone pay the rent, after losing an average $817 in wages, a new Tenants Victoria survey has revealed. More than half of the 1122 tenants surveyed said they would not be able to pay their rent after another two weeks out of work. Even as stage four restrictions across the state ease, many casual workers will be unable to return to their jobs in sectors like hospitality that will reopen at a reduced capacity or, in some cases, not at all.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tenants-left-without-financial-he…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Homelessness strategy ‘unlikely to end homelessness’
Judy Skatssoon (No paywall)The NSW Government’s homelessness strategy is underfunded and likely to have only a limited short-term effect, an audit has found. The $169 million NSW Homelessness Strategy 2018-23 comprises 21 actions including screening at-risk high school students, helping vulnerable people keep tenancies and providing social housing. But the Department of Communities and Justice received “significantly less funding” than it sought for the strategy, which remains focused on how to go about ending homelessness rather than actually doing something about it, the NSW auditor general’s report says. (Government News)
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/nsw-homelessness-strategy-unli…
# NSW, Homelessness, State Government.Why taxes on property investors should go up
(Paywall)Labor should slash the $9 billion capital gains tax discount, which benefits the top 10 per cent, and use the money to cut taxes for middle-income earners. (Australian Financial Review)
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/why-taxes-on-property-investo…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Tax.Why I turned down an MBE for services to homeless people
Gill Taylor The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... I’ve worked in homelessness services for almost 18 years – in hostels, youth services, women’s projects and for local government and charities. I’ve celebrated jubilantly each time someone has secured stable housing, and I weep every time someone loses their life on the streets. I have never once stopped caring intensely about what I do, never stopped wanting to learn and do a better job, and never once stopped believing that people affected by homelessness deserve infinitely better than what I have been able to offer them. ... The truth is, my job shouldn’t exist. Despite working 50-plus hours a week every week for nearly two decades, my efforts – and those of thousands of other dedicated practitioners and volunteers – have had almost no tangible positive effect on homelessness in this country. In the world I want to live in, housing is a right not a privilege.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/09/mbe-servic…
# International, Homelessness.A leaky share house is a world away from where I thought I’d be in my 30s
Deirdre Fidge The Guardian (No paywall)Like many old houses, mine often feels flimsy, ready to crumble at any moment. Previous attempts at hole-patching from tenants gone by are found throughout as large bulging clouds, optimistic layer upon optimistic layer. The house slopes so profoundly we use multiple door stoppers to prop up my furniture. I tip-toe around the kitchen as one of the wobbly beams cracks so loudly I fear that one confident stride will plunge me deep underground, where I’ll be forced to live as a mole person. And I hate worms!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/a-leaky-sh…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses.Buyer beware amid warnings that interest rates will rise
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buyers who have driven home prices to record highs across the country have been warned an interest rate rise may come sooner than expected as the economy continues to bounce back from the coronavirus recession.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/buyer-beware-amid-warnin…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Medical, post grad international students the first to return to NSW
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)International students studying medicine and health-related degrees and those close to finishing their studies will be given priority to return to NSW universities under a long-awaited rescue plan. Universities will foot the bill for international students to return within weeks, with 250 students to arrive each fortnight on charter flights before quarantining in special accommodation. ... Students from a range of countries, predominately China but also others including Singapore and South Korea, will quarantine in purpose-built student accommodation once they arrive in Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/medical-post-grad-internatio…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Students.Australians think our population is getting too big but can we build better dense cities?
Roje Augustin and Emma Nobel ABC (No paywall)Australia is one of the least densely populated nations in the world and yet, according to the Australia Talks National Survey 2021, 35 per cent of Australians say the population is getting too big for the country to handle. Those living outside inner-metro areas, including regional and rural residents, are most likely to agree. Some of their concerns about a booming population, particularly in cities, centre on the environmental impact of population density. But that's the wrong way to look at it, according to Tim Soutphommasane, sociology and political theory professor at the University of Sydney. "Some of the greenest cities in the world are much denser than what our cities at the moment are," he tells ABC RN's Life Matters.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/cities-population-density…
# Australia, Planning and development.