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
Corporate Landlord Evicts Black Renters At Far Higher Rates Than Whites, Report Finds
Chris Arnold (No paywall)Katrina Chism was frightened and confused. She'd been renting the same house in Atlanta for three years. She's a single mom with a teenage son. But then she lost her customer service job during the coronavirus pandemic and fell a month behind on her rent. "I remember going to the door and the sheriff standing there," Chism says. "It scared me because I didn't know why he was at my house." The reason: Her landlord had filed an eviction case against her. "Once you get that eviction, no one's going to want you to rent from them," Chism says. "I don't want to be in a homeless situation." Getting evicted can send people into a downward financial spiral. During the pandemic, there has been the added danger of catching or spreading the coronavirus. But that hasn't stopped Chism's landlord, a company owned by the private equity investment firm Pretium Partners, from filing what critics say is a lot of eviction cases against people during the pandemic. ... [Private Equity Stakeholder Project] ... has been tracking eviction filings by corporate landlords and, in a report on Pretium, says it has found a racial disparity. ... According to the report, since the beginning of the year, "they're filing to evict residents at rates four times as high in majority-Black counties". (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1001404416/corporate-landlord-evi…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Race and ethnicity.Tiny homes, house sharing, help with small builds — women's ideas to help alleviate housing crisis
Adriane Reardon ABC (No paywall)Kathleen McCann has lived in 67 rentals during her lifetime, but now she's found a place to call her own. As a tenant, she struggled to hold on to accommodation due to rent hikes or properties being sold. Now she is in the process of building her own tiny home on a friend's 5-acre property, where she helps to maintain the land. Ms McCann said a tiny home was affordable and mobile, and sharing a property while maintaining the land was a viable option for her. "I'm building my tiny home where my housemate is not able to look after the block at all. I can. I have those skills," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-05/affordable-housing-soluti…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Redfern is already ruined, but spare it student quarantine
Elizabeth Farrelly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Student housing operator Scape ... propose[s] to repurpose his spanking new Block tower as a quarantine venue for international students – and receive a government-sponsored boost to its bottom line. ... Weirdly, it’s called the Col James Student Centre. Weird because Col, an academic and lifetime Aboriginal rights activist, was also a diehard lefty who would surely have resisted both the commercialisation of universities that has turned international students into a river of cash, or a skyscraper on his beloved Block. Now, in any case, there are no students. So Carracher, thinking quickly, has re-engineered the building with air-flow and contactless access to suit quarantine.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/redfern-is-already-ruined-bu…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Students.The van offering up hope to Canberra's homeless with medical services and support
Holly Tregenza ABC (No paywall)A trip to the doctor is something many take for granted. But for those living rough or in public housing, just figuring out how to get to a clinic can be a barrier. In Canberra, a $250,000 mobile GP clinic took to the road in November last year, providing some of the Territory's most vulnerable with access to free counselling and primary healthcare services.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-05/act-homeless-van-providin…
# Australia, Health, Homelessness.Here’s what the budget did to get Australians into homes (hint: not much)
Yogi Vidyattama and John Hawkins The Conversation (No paywall)Among the bolder claims in last month’s budget was that “under the Coalition, home ownership will always be supported”. Since the Howard government took office in 1996, the proportion of Australian households owning the home they live in has fallen from 70% to 66%. The proportion having paid off their mortgage has fallen from 40% to 30%. The proportion renting privately has climbed from 20% to 27%. In the lead up to the budget, home prices began climbing again, soaring 8.5% so far this year in Melbourne and 11% in Sydney.
The response was a series of measures designed to look as if they would help people buy their own homes.
https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-budget-did-to-get-aus…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Melbourne public housing tower residents call for more deep cleaning during COVID outbreak
Ahmed Yussuf and Oliver Gordon ABC (No paywall)Public housing tower residents who endured the nation's harshest hard lockdown last year say they are concerned not enough has been done by Victorian authorities to support the communities during the Melbourne outbreak.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-05/melbourne-public-housing-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.'My landlord wants six months' rent upfront'
James Graham BBC (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Daoud - not his real name - has hit a brick wall with his landlord. Last year, he borrowed money to cover a demand for six months' rent upfront on a new flat he shares with a friend. Now the six-month tenancy is about to end and he has been asked for another six months - about £5,000. Speaking to BBC 5 Live's Wake Up to Money, he said: "I told them, 'After six months you can see that I'm paying... so why not give me a monthly payment contract?'" But the landlord refused.
# International, Eviction, Rent, Housing market.COVID-19: Lockdown support for Victorian tenants
Lauren Vardy (No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force for Melbourne and have been extended another 7 days past Thursday, 3 June. Here’s what you need to know about the lockdown and where to get tenancy support. (rent.com.au)
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.