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
The Evictions Surprised Trailer Park Residents. The Protest Stunned Officials.
Campbell Robertson The New York Times (No paywall)From the United States ... Under a slate-colored sky, the holdouts gathered in what remained of the North Fork Mobile Home Park. Around them it looked as if a hurricane had blown through, leaving scattered cinder blocks, capsized sofas and porches affixed to thin air. The small circle — among them single mothers, a factory worker, a retiree, two community organizers — sat on kitchen chairs discussing their next move: recruiting for a boycott. ... For more than two months, a fight has burned in Morehead, a small college town in the hills of eastern Kentucky. It began in early March, when the residents of roughly 65 mobile homes at North Fork were told they had a month and a half to leave and take their homes with them. A new development was coming, bringing restaurants and stores, jobs and tax revenue. The city was subsidizing it. The trailer park had to go. ... And though most of the homes have now been hauled away or left behind, the campaign has rolled on, along with a debate over the obligations of a city to those dislodged by its growth and a lesson about how combative democracy has become — even in a small town — in an age of social media and protest.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/us/kentucky-trailer-park-prot…
# International, Eviction, Land lease communities, Planning and development.UTS Indigenous residential college will help 'close the gap' for future students, says professor
Mawunyo Gbogbo ABC (No paywall)Australia's first Indigenous residential college will help provide easier access to the most vital ingredient in "closing the gap" — education, says the University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Professor Michael McDaniel.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-24/closing-the-gap-indigenou…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Students.Lake Hume resident Deborah Gibson faces eviction from home on Crown land in Victoria's high country
Anna Chisholm ABC (No paywall)One woman's struggle to remain living on a property she calls her "little patch of paradise" has put the spotlight on the complexities of Crown land. ... But she's on uncertain turf, as the privately owned home is on public land. The former station master's house is currently owned by her late partner's mother Marie Cadman, who lives elsewhere. "Debbie can live there as long as she likes," Ms Cadman said. But it's not that simple.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-22/lake-hume-resident-faces-…
# Australia, Rent, Regional NSW, Squatting.Domain warns potential renters about phishing scam asking for 'deposit'
ABC (No paywall)People asking about rental properties on the Domain website have been warned about scammers potentially getting access to their personal details, including name, phone number and postcode.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-20/domain-warns-renters-abou…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.Turning shut-down shops into homes? It’ll be the developers who enjoy the bargains
Rowan Moore The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... By relaxing rules on planning permission, the Tories are doing nothing for tenants or our high streets.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/23/turning-sh…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Landlord who crammed 8 tenants into a 6-bed home fined £18,500
Rafi Mauro-Benady (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... A rogue landlord has been fined almost £20,000 after a tribunal found he had been renting out an unsafe home with 6 bedrooms to 8 tenants,running an unlicensed House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO), following a Lambeth Council investigation. (MyLondon)
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/landlord-who-cr…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards.Sydney office worker Professor Peter Phibbs commutes from Hobart – and says it’s quicker
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)The pandemic has pushed many people into working from home, but urban planner Professor Peter Phibbs has gone one step further – he now commutes to his Sydney office from his new home in … Hobart.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-office-worker-professor-pe…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Personal stories.Perth homelessness up almost 60 per cent in six months
Peter de Kruijff The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The number of people experiencing homelessness in Perth has increased by 58 per cent over the past six months as vulnerable West Australians struggle to find accommodation in the tightest rental market in 40 years.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-homeless…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness.