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
How a town Tony Abbott described as having the worst housing in Australia is changing the game
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Housing in the four town camps was overcrowded, the water was contaminated and toilets and plumbing were failing. When former prime minister Tony Abbott visited Borroloola in 2018, he said the housing was “The worst I’ve seen anywhere in remote Australia”. ... [Today] Welcome to Indi Kindi, an outdoor walking-learning early years program that travels from the bush to the river and local library. It’s led and taught by local Aboriginal people - and now a review of the Moriarty Foundation’s program has found it has bridged the gap in early childhood education by reaching 80 per cent of Indigenous preschool-aged children in Borroloola and nearby Robinson River on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-a-town-tony-abbott-described…
# Australia, Race and ethnicity.Country councils sell up public land for houses to tackle crisis
Benjamin Preiss The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Regional and rural councils will take out loans for their own social housing projects and are selling off public land to make way for property developments in response to soaring house prices and rents in regional Victoria.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/regional-councils-in-ne…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Local Government.Why Noosa can't dump 'junk' houseboats enjoying million-dollar views for free
Jacqui Street, Amy Sheehan, Sheridan Stewart, and Tessa Mapstone ABC (No paywall)The Noosa community is fuming as hundreds of boat owners exploit a loophole in Queensland marine laws and anchor "old junk" houseboats in front of premium waterfront real estate. ... [But] Some Noosa residents are reluctant to demand the vessels be moved on or scrapped, concerned that Queenslanders were living on the water amid a dire shortage of rental properties. They include boat owner Haykey Kaariainen, who was moored in the river waiting for new sails before heading north.
"I'm technically homeless," he said. "Either my van or my boat is my home."
Australian house prices could rise 10 times as fast as wages in 2021
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)House prices could rise more than 10 times faster than wages this year, with a top economist warning that the improving jobs market will make little difference to modest income earners trying to save a house deposit. And experts warn that government grants to home buyers and tax incentives for investors will only make it harder for some to buy a home.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australian-house-prices-could-ris…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.HOT OFF THE PRESS ... The Private Rental Sector in Australia: Living with Uncertainty
Alan Morris, Kath Hulse and Hal Pawson (No paywall)First book to discuss the private rental sector in Australia ... [It] explores the decline and growth of the private rental sector in Australia delving into the changing dynamics of landlord investment and tenant profile over the course of the twentieth century and into the present period. It explains why over one in four Australian households are now private renters and investigates the contemporary legal and regulatory frameworks governing the sector. The reform discourses in Australia and comparator countries, and debates around key concerns such as Australia’s advantageous tax treatment of investors in rental property and the power imbalance between tenants and landlords are highlighted. The book draws on rich data: 600 surveys and close to 100 in-depth interviews with tenants in high, medium and low rent areas in Sydney and Melbourne and regional New South Wales. The book provides in-depth insights into this large and expanding component of Australia’s housing market and shows how being a private renter shapes the everyday lives and wellbeing of people and households who rent their housing including short and long-term renters, those on low and higher incomes and older as well as younger people.
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions, Older people, State Government, Tax.A long, winding road: NSW boarding house reform
Jemima Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)NSW Fair Trading and DCJ Housing are currently developing a new Shared Accommodation Act to replace the current Boarding House Act 2012. In this blog Jemima Mowbray sets out the push for reform that led initially to the 2012 Act, and now seeks to strengthen and extend the protections that were won. Indeed, we’re hoping the proposed NSW Shared Accommodation Act will be the next step along that path towards more comprehensive and effective protections for the many NSW renters who have, so far, missed out.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/long-winding-road-nsw-boarding-h…
# Must read, History NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent, Share houses.Hidden UK homelessness is about to get much worse, with Covid support being cut
Freya Marshall Payne The Guardian (No paywall)From 1 June landlords will be able to evict tenants – a particular concern for women hit by a ‘shecession’ during the pandemic ... Rough sleeping is the most extreme and visible experience of poverty and injustice in the UK. So, a year ago, when the pandemic hit and people were advised to “stay home”, the vulnerability and visibility of people on the streets forced the government to roll out its Everyone In scheme. It showed what campaigners have long known to be true: that rough sleeping could be ended if there was a consistent political will. ... [But] rough sleeping is only the tip of the iceberg that is Britain’s homelessness crisis,the majority of which still goes unseen. Hidden homelessness includes rough sleepers never officially counted by the ministry of housing, communities and local government but also people sofa-surfing, crammed into overcrowded private rentals without their own space, squatting, living in vehicles, starting new relationships or staying in abusive relationships to keep a roof over their heads. ... We are also seeing a “shecession”, with women furloughed and laid off at higher numbers than their male counterparts, which is exacerbating the existing gender housing-affordability gap. Combined Homelessness and Information Network reports show more women being counted on the streets than usual and, because we know that many women sleeping rough carefully hide themselves for safety, numbers will be higher.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/22/hidden-uk-…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Women.Homelessness in regional South Australia is nearing unprecedented levels and it's families who suffer
Kelly Hughes ABC (No paywall)At 45, Minyon Smart, a mother of two special needs children, has found herself "effectively homeless". After her marriage broke down earlier this year, she was forced to move back in with her mother in Renmark, in South Australia's rural Riverland region, and is now struggling to navigate her new way of life. ... Kate Colvin, the CEO of the Everybody's Home campaign, which is trying to fix Australia's "broken housing system", said the housing market did not meet the needs of people across the country. "Too many people are missing out," Ms Colvin said. "Many people were already struggling with housing affordability in the regions, and things are just getting tougher. "We're really concerned about rising homelessness across the country."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-21/rental-shortage-in-the-re…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Regional NSW.