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
We’ve got way too many “glorified tents” and our death rate from cold is worse than Sweden’s
Duncan Murray The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Poorly insulated rental homes have a major impact in Australia in terms of energy usage, and on the health of tenants, prompting a new campaign for minimum energy efficiency standards on rental properties. Every year 10,000 people die in Australia of causes attributable to the cold, according to the organisers of the Healthy Homes for Renters campaign.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/housing-2/weve-got-way-too-many-gl…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Campaigns and law reform, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.With rising energy costs, a growing need to measure energy stress: Supporting lower income households experiencing energy stress
AHURI Brief AHURI (No paywall)When extremes of weather sweep in, either colder or hotter, the impacts of energy poverty for lower income households become severe, with more than 6 per cent of deaths in Australia each year due to living in cold environments and one per cent of deaths heat related. ... The Australian Housing Conditions Dataset 2016 (AHCD) survey of both public and private renters revealed that 18 per cent of public renters, and 14 per cent of private renters, were unable to keep sufficiently warm in winter.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/ahuri-briefs/with-rising-energ…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Coronavirus COVID-19.COVID and the need for better standards in high-rise living
AHURI Brief AHURI (No paywall)Although issues with the design and quality of living spaces in high density, high rise residential apartment buildings existed pre-COVID, the pandemic response restrictions that forced people to stay and work at home have focussed community concern on the problems of poor design and operation in some of these buildings. AHURI research in 2020 during the pandemic identified that households in apartments (particular people in smaller apartments) experienced limitations in their living environment during their extended lockdown ...
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/ahuri-briefs/covid-and-the-nee…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Friendship formed over new designs for homes
Vanessa Mills ABC (No paywall)The importance of family, and multi-generations living under one roof, is just one of the uniting factors behind a new way of designing and building homes. Studio Kinship is an organisation founded by Perth based architect Lisa Anne Halton and Walmajarri artist Clifton Bieundurry. Lisa Anne grew up in Ireland and Clifton in Kimberley Aboriginal communities, and they've formed a strong friendship. The pair has designed, and plan to build, homes that allow Aboriginal people to adhere to strict kinship rules and traditions. (ABC Kimberley Breakfast)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/kimberley/programs/breakfast/kinshi…
# Video Australia, Aboriginal renters, Families, Housing market.‘Real thuggery’: Cornwall boats vandalised amid ‘incomer’ tensions
Steven Morris The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The spot could hardly be more idyllic. A Cornish creek fringed by apple trees where boats bob at high tide and dogs and children frolic in the mud at low. But there is trouble in the parish of Feock after a string of acts of vandalism aimed at those bobbing boats led to a wave of anger, fear and suspicion. Some of the victims blame second-home owners and “incomers”... especially given the exit from cities that the Covid crisis has caused, making homes unaffordable for most locally born people.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/03/real-thuggery-co…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.Nightmare landlord drives tenants out, but court action has left them unable to rent again
Amy Ridout (No paywall)From New Zealand ... A landlord’s actions and bizarre requests made a couple’s tenancy unbearable. But turning to the Tenancy Tribunal for help has left Elizabeth Fryer and her partner feel unable to rent again and disillusioned with a process they feel is weighted to landlords.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/124788759/night…
# International, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents.Rogue Richmond landlords hit with fines for mouldy leaking flats
Sian Bayley (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Water damage, a leaking roof, and black mould in cupboards are just some of the issues found in properties run by a rogue private landlord in Richmond. ... This led to the council issuing two financial penalty notices, resulting in a £10,000 fine. (MyLondon)
https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/rogue-richmond-l…
# International, Rent, Repairs, Health, Local Government, Mould.Comprehensive reform overdue for Australia’s underfunded aged care sector, Anthony Albanese says
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)The Labor leader Anthony Albanese will use a major pre budget speech to pressure the government over aged care funding, while declaring he would be “cautious” about government spending if he was prime minister. In a speech to the McKell Institute on Thursday, Albanese targets the prime minister for failing to adequately fund the overstretched aged care sector, saying “comprehensive reform” is overdue.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/06/comprehen…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.