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
Zahra should never have ended up living in her car after giving birth
Jamila Rizvi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Zahra is a 44-year-old Victorian mother who works full time. Zahra isn’t her real name. She has chosen to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. She has a master’s degree and speaks eloquently, intelligently and passionately about social justice. Everything from gender equality to First Nations people’s campaign for a treaty. Zahra is highly educated, confident and accomplished. She’s anything but the stereotype of a person who has experienced homelessness. ... While there are more homeless men than women, among the fastest growing cohorts of homeless Australians are women aged over 55. ... [Check out] Launch Housing Roughin’ It Challenge. Between 16-23 April 2021, participants can show their solidarity for people experiencing homelessness. To get involved go; [https://www.launchhousing.org.au/].
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/zahra-sh…
# Australia, Homelessness, Women.Berlin’s Rent Cap: What Did the Constitutional Court Decide?
Andrej Holm (No paywall)From Germany ... With today’s decision by the Second Senate of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, the judges in Karlsruhe have declared that the rent cap law in Berlin is inadmissible. In particular, they denied the state’s competence to regulate rents and thus rejected the attempt to at least temporarily halt rent hikes in Berlin. ... For many tenants, the ruling from Karlsruhe is dramatic news, because the decision turns back the housing policy clock to regular rent hikes, excessively high rents on new contract, and a growing threat of displacement. The rent freeze stipulated in the rent cap has been lifted, and rent increases can now be demanded again even on already valid contracts. However, the restrictions mandated by the German Civil Code (BGB), which tie rent increases to the average local rent and limits it to a maximum of 15 percent in three years (at least in Berlin), still apply. ... The decision in Karlsruhe shows once again how difficult it is to enforce affordable rents via legal means. We know this from almost all big cities: the interests of private profit and affordable rents are mutually exclusive. If legal measures are not allowed to take effect, the only logical way to stop the rent madness is to expand non-profit housing stock.
https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/44118/berlins-rent-cap-what-di…
# Legal significance International, Rent, Federal Government, State Government.‘Very big package’: $10 billion aged care boost at heart of federal budget
James Massola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Morrison government will promise at least $10 billion over four years for aged care in the May federal budget, including allowing more people to stay in their own homes for longer.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/very-big-package-10-bill…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.Housing crisis: Byron rents soar; now more expensive than most of Sydney
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Regional NSW’s housing crisis requires rent regulation similar to other international cities, experts say, to curb the spiralling cost of towns like Byron Bay, where prices now outstrip most of Sydney. ... The rapid rental increases of the past year warranted the state government looking into rent regulation similar to international cities around the world, said Chris Martin, senior research fellow at UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre. ... Many countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Scotland all have various forms of rent regulation, which caps rental increases, Dr Martin said. ... Joel Dignam, executive director of Better Renting, [said] “[Landlords] are playing by the rules of the game,” he said. “That’s why we have governments to change the rules of the game when things aren’t working.” He also backed calls for governments to step in to protect locals from unaffordable, insecure housing.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/calls-for-rent-control-as-regiona…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW, State Government.'The Tenants' Is a Great Game About Landlord Jobs That Shouldn't Exist
Gita Jackson (No paywall)The Tenants is a fun game, and one clearly made with a lot of passion for the genres it's straddling. ... The Tenants tries to portray the system of renters and landlords as fair and easily navigable make the game seem like a cruel joke. You have to change too much about the imbalance of power between renters and landlords to make it into a game that's satisfying to play. It's a fantasy where landlords have to work hard for their customers, and renters have lots of choices. It's nothing like the real world, where landlords have all the leverage, and renters have to live in decaying homes on the crumbs they leave behind.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg8emb/the-tenants-is-a-great-ga…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents.Next month’s federal budget is the time to stop talking about aged care and start fixing it
Stephen Duckett and Anita Stobart The Conversation (No paywall)Australia’s aged-care system is in a state of a disaster. The aged care royal commission’s final report, released last month, is just the latest in a decades-long string of depressing reports and inquiries exposing horrific abuse, neglect, and systemic failures. Aged care needs a complete overhaul. Piecemeal reform will not be enough. Although the two commissioners didn’t agree on everything, they did agree on the fundamental reforms needed to throw out the old paradigm of rationed care, which has left too many older Australians with inadequate care — or none at all. In a new Grattan Institute report, we navigate the commissioners’ disagreements and identify four key criteria for transformational change.
https://theconversation.com/next-months-federal-budget-is-the-ti…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.The Guardian view on the house price boom: the asset-rich get richer
The Guardian Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Treasury measures to boost demand for property and a neglect of social housing are making a dysfunctional market worse
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/18/the-guardi…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.High-rise owners to get government advice about safe replacement cladding
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Owners of high-rise buildings in Sydney will finally receive advice from the NSW government as early as Monday about what products they should use to replace flammable cladding found on their towers. The long-awaited findings from a report by the state’s cladding product safety panel are set to be released, helping to end years of uncertainty in NSW about whether replacement products are safe or too risky.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/high-rise-owners-to-get-gove…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.