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
Homelessness in U.S. Rose for 4th Straight Year, Report Says
Glenn Thrush The New York Times (No paywall)Homelessness in the United States rose for the fourth straight year, with about 580,000 people living on the streets or in temporary shelter at the start of 2020, according to an annual nationwide survey that was completed before the pandemic. But the report, which was released on Thursday, almost certainly underestimates the spread, depth and urgency of the crisis, and not by a little, federal officials warned. ... [Further] Despite federal and state efforts to halt evictions, advocacy groups have reported an increase in the number of families facing eviction and foreclosure, or economic insecurity dire enough to endanger their housing. You may wish to check out Biden’s presidential platform on housing at: [https://joebiden.com/housing/#]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/us/politics/homelessness-coro…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.The land battle being compared to The Castle
Nat Wallace 9 News (Paywall)Lawyers are likening the plight of a bunch of small-town battling retirees to that of Darryl Kerrigan in the iconic Australian film The Castle. The residents of the Coolah Caravan Park, five hours north west of Sydney, say they are facing homelessness after "accidentally" finding out the land they thought they owned had been sold from under their feet. It has prompted a showdown in the Supreme Court, which will cost them most of their life savings. (ACA) You will find a summary of their plight in Outasite Issue 6 on p15: '... home owners were shocked to discover their company title scheme had been changed back into a land lease community without their knowledge. The home owners were presented with residential site agreements and a large site fee increase and told they could either agree or leave.' Viewed at: [https://www.tenants.org.au/thenoticeboard/news/shifting-sands] You will find more on Shelter NSW's website at: [https://shelternsw.org.au/news_items/coolah-home-base-webinar/]
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/aussie-small-town-reti…
# Video NSW, Land lease communities, Home ownership, Regional NSW.White Bay Power Station the centrepiece of draft plan to revive area
Angus Thompson and Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Restoration of the White Bay Power Station as a cultural building and the reopening of the Glebe Island Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists are at the centre of a NSW government plan to transform Sydney’s industrial harbour into a business, leisure and tourism precinct. A draft strategy, released for consultation on Monday, revives the idea of White Bay as a technology hub previously floated by Google and puts residential development ... back on the table. ... It makes housing a key strategic direction, including affordable housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/white-bay-power-station-the-…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Planning and development.Could the biggest result of pandemic stimulus and low interest rates be higher house prices in Australia?
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)House prices keep going up. Regardless of falls in employment or a sharper drop in national production than has ever been experienced, through 2020 house prices around the country rose and once again in Sydney the median price is $1m.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/18/could-the-…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.'Can you help me?': The quiet desperation of New Zealand's housing crisis
Elle Hunt The Guardian (No paywall)With prices soaring, many fear they will never be able to buy. Others will try anything as the crisis threatens to define a generation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/20/can-you-help-me-th…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Only a small fraction of buildings with flammable cladding have been fixed, and owners are feeling the strain
Trivess Moore and others The Conversation (No paywall)Australia has more than 3,400 buildings with flammable cladding. In Victoria alone, at least 71 of these buildings have been classified as “extreme risk” and another 368 as “high risk”. Despite the tragic evidence of the risks of cladding fires, rectification work had been completed on only 11 of these buildings by February 2021.
https://theconversation.com/only-a-small-fraction-of-buildings-w…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.The housing market is exploding again
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)Australia is one of the few countries in the world that encourages speculation in residential housing, which means we get boom/bust cycles in shelter. To avoid that, many countries have rent controls or direct regulation of house prices, or both. ... After all, accommodation is an essential service ... so it’s arguably a responsibility of government to ensure we can all afford it. ... It’s also an unproductive asset, so over-investing in it can hold back a country’s productivity. But in Australia, housing speculation is actively encouraged: Tax is applied to only half of the capital gain, and if you live in it rather than rent it out there’s no capital gains tax at all. Plus, negative gearing ... But wait, there’s more ... [Read on]
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/03/22/alan-kohler-housin…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government, Tax.After a decade of lost opportunity to fix NSW’s planning mess, here’s a model for success
James Weirick The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Liberal-National Coalition came to power a decade ago promising reform of a NSW planning system ... [But] the sale of public assets ... has been justified on the basis of capital recycling to fund new infrastructure ... These are part of a long list of undertakings – the stadiums, the Powerhouse Museum, the Millers Point social housing sell-off, redevelopment of the Waterloo Estate, sale of the Bridge Street heritage buildings, sale of the Land Titles Registry, the Aerotropolis land deals, treeless suburbs in western Sydney – that have one thing in common. They are all mistakes. Or more accurately, they are the ruinous outcomes of persistence in folly ... NSW needs an Independent Planning Commission. [Read on]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/after-a-decade-of-lost-oppor…
# NSW, Planning and development, State Government.