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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Bail out renters, not just landlords, unions urge Rishi Sunak ahead of Budget
Jon Stone (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Trade unions and housing campaigners are urging the government to write off debts for the 840,000 tenants who have fallen behind with their rent during the pandemic. There is speculation that Rishi Sunak is readying a bailout for landlords in Wednesday’s Budget speech. But unions ... have backed a call by renters' groups to make sure the burden of paying back debt does not fall on tenants who lost their jobs because of lockdown. (Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget/landlord-b…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.As WA working families start to call, housing support workers face ‘tsunami’ of homelessness
Tess Ingram The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With working families now calling homelessness support workers, some of who are themselves under rental stress, community services groups predict Western Australia’s second wave of pandemic-related homelessness will be a ‘tsunami’.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/as-wa-working-…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.‘Off the charts’: Perth rental market braces for shock when eviction ban lifts
Tess Ingram The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Jasmine Peucker has been to almost a dozen home opens in the past three weeks. After facing knockback after knockback, Ms Peucker and her partner Cameron are growing increasingly worried. The pair have lived in a property in Bicton for three years, but their landlord has decided to sell. They only have a week and a half left to find a new place. ... Renters like Ms Peucker across the state are growing increasingly anxious, with just one month until the COVID-19 emergency period for residential tenancies ends.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/western-australia/off-the-charts…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Only one thing will end the squalor of aged care
Ross Gittins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Despite all the appalling stories of the neglect and even abuse of old people we’ve heard during the two years of the royal commission into aged care, it’s hard to be confident this will be the last time we’ll need an inquiry into what’s going wrong and why. ... The basic solution is obvious: if we want decent care of our oldies we must be prepared to pay more for it – a lot more. The problem is, neither side of politics has been game to ask us to do so.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/only-one-thing-will-…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people, Tax.Families in desperate need of housing in Newcastle
ABC (No paywall)A local homeless support service in Newcastle, which typically acts as a service for men, says it's experiencing a notable increase in families who are needing help. The ABC's Dan Cox and Jenny Marchant spoke to Karen Soper, the manager of Matthew Talbot Homeless Service in Newcastle, who says the current rental market is making it difficult for families to find housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/newcastle/programs/breakfast/karen-…
# Video NSW, Rent, Families, Homelessness.Economic struggle in Queensland worst for women, young adults, self-employed and renters since COVID, survey shows
Emilie Gramenz ABC (No paywall)Women, young adults, the self-employed and renters were among the groups experiencing the most financial pain from the COVID pandemic late last year, an analysis from Queensland's peak body for the social services says. Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) chief executive Aimee McVeigh said "it may feel like it's business as usual for many of us in the community, but there are many people who are continuing to suffer the impacts".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/qcoss-economic-struggle-c…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Women, Young people.The utility of new data in understanding housing insecurity
Maria B Yanotti and others AHURI (No paywall)This study investigated the potential of using the Department of Social Services DOMINO (Data Over Multiple Individual Occurrences) dataset as a fine-grained, within-year data resource for housing research, and in particular explores the capacity of the DOMINO dataset to yield new insights into patterns of CRA (Commonwealth Rent Assistance). The results from this project aim to showcase DOMINO as a potentially rich resource of information offering policy makers and researchers a more nuanced appreciation of a potential housing tenure risk facing some of our most vulnerable households and individuals.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKJWQhltqFWSSrk…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market, Welfare.Eviction orders being issued despite UK government Covid pledge
Robert Booth The Guardian (No paywall)Eviction orders are being issued to tenants who have run up rent arrears because of the pandemic despite a promise by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, that “no renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home”. Twenty members of the London Renters Union are among those facing the first court proceedings after the government quietly changed its eviction ban last month to allow landlords to throw out tenants who had fallen into arrears as a result of Covid.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/28/eviction-orders-…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.