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
‘Everyone In’ scheme exposed faults in government’s rough sleeping strategy, MPs say
Dominic Brady Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has today published a report highlighting weaknesses in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) understanding of the number of rough sleepers across England. The cross-party MPs noted that MHCLG statistics show 37,430 people had been helped into accommodation by January 2021 as a result of Everyone In, aimed at putting a roof over rough sleepers’ heads during the COVID-19 crisis. But this figure is nearly nine times MHCLG’s official estimate for the number of rough sleepers in the country, which stood at 4,266 in March 2020.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/everyone-in-scheme-exposed-…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Tenant screening software faces national reckoning
Cyrus Farivar (No paywall)In November 2018, Marco Antonio Fernandez, returned home after a yearlong Navy deployment in South Korea and searched for an apartment near his next posting in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Fernandez, whose national security work had already earned him a top-secret clearance, had little to worry about when he was asked to undergo a tenant screening — a process involving credit, criminal records and eviction checks. But the screening’s algorithm-based software rejected him for an apartment: It found he had a drug conviction and three misdemeanors for petty theft. That’s because it confused him with Marco Alberto Fernandez Santana, an alleged Mexican drug trafficker.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tenant-screening-software…
# International, Rent, Tenant databases.In solidarity
London Renters Union (No paywall)A few weeks ago one of our members was facing an illegal eviction. Members in Hackney blocked our member's doorway to stop the estate agents entering and at the same time, members in Newham took a visit to the estate agent who was acting illegally. Together we made sure the eviction didn't happen! When renters unite we stop evictions!
https://mailchi.mp/londonrentersunion/get-active-march2021?e=5b8…
# International, Eviction, Landlords and agents.‘Diabolical state’: Aged care providers heading for loss of $12 per bed per day
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Aged care homes will lose up to $12 per bed per day by the end of the year, causing a catastrophe in the already failing system, if the government does not make immediate funding changes that operators and the opposition say are necessary to keep the sector afloat.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/diabolical-state-aged-ca…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people.ABC Investigations journalist Anne Connolly on her crowdsourced probe into aged care and the shocking stories it uncovered
Anne Connolly ABC (No paywall)ABC Investigations journalist Anne Connolly has spent the past three years looking into the state of aged care in Australia. The federal government called a royal commission the day before her first in-depth story on Four Corners went to air and her reporting on the issue has won several awards ... n this interview with ABC Backstory, Connolly says aged care is an issue that's been neglected in media coverage but she sensed there was widespread suffering that needed to be exposed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/backstory/2021-03-16/anne-connolly-o…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people.Rise in higher risk loans as housing market surges
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Lending to highly-geared home buyers rose in the December quarter as the property market also rebounded, sparking debate over whether riskier lending is starting to re-emerge. As regulators keep a close eye on the surge in house prices, figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on Tuesday showed a rise in the proportion of new loans with high loan-to-valuation ratios (LVRs), and loans with high debt-to-income multiples.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/rise-in-high…
# Australia, Housing market.Without more investment, it would take 1300 years to house every person on WA’s social housing waitlist
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It would take the West Australian government more than 1300 years to house every person on the state’s social housing waitlist at its current rate – without accounting for a ‘tsunami’ of pandemic-related homelessness predicted when an eviction moratorium ends this month. Meanwhile, in the private sector, people are spending more on rent and being forced into bidding wars, sparking fears among service providers they may flock to social housing if unable to secure accommodation.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/without-more-i…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.‘Once and for all’: Minister wants resolution to debate over developers on councils
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock has called “once and for all” for a resolution over the fraught issue of developers running for councils as her own party stagnates on its stance. But Mrs Hancock clarified before a parliamentary hearing last week that she didn’t believe banning certain sectors of the population from being elected to positions on local government was the correct course of action.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/once-and-for-all-minister-wa…
# Hot topic NSW, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.