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
Peterborough residents oppose plan for tiny house development on Great Ocean Road
Matt Neal ABC (No paywall)A proposal to build an accommodation park made up of tiny houses near a Victorian estuary has angered a group of residents in the Great Ocean Road town of Peterborough.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-11/tiny-house-plan-not-welco…
# Australia, Local Government, Short-term holiday letting.'Significant proportion' of rough sleepers in Australia given shelter during Covid now homeless
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)A “remarkable” number of homeless people were placed in emergency accommodation at the height of the Covid pandemic but only a third of rough sleepers were later moved into long-term housing, a new report states. The report, released on Thursday by UNSW and the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss), argues many of those housed in emergency shelters during the pandemic are now homeless again due to a lack of social housing stock.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/11/significa…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.States housed 40,000 people for the COVID emergency. Now rough sleeper numbers are back on
Hal Pawson and Chris Martin The Conversation (No paywall)Australian governments acted to protect homeless people from COVID-19 in 2020 on an even larger scale than previously thought. In the first six months of the pandemic, the four states that launched emergency programs housed more than 40,000 rough sleepers and others. The states were anxious about rough sleepers’ extreme vulnerability to virus infection and the resulting public health risk to the wider community. New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia acted fast to provide safe temporary housing, mainly in otherwise empty hotels.
https://theconversation.com/states-housed-40-000-people-for-the-…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, International.Identifying the losers (and surprising winners) from phasing out stamp duty
Lawrence Uren, Shuyun May Li and Yunho Cho The Conversation (No paywall)More than ever as we emerge from the crisis we are going to have to get the most out of our economy. Swapping stamp duty for land tax as the ACT government is doing (over 20 years) and the NSW government is planning (using an opt-in arrangement), is one of the best ways the tax system can help.
https://theconversation.com/identifying-the-losers-and-surprisin…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Law Society raises concerns around government’s new eviction mediation scheme
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)A government scheme designed to ease the backlog of eviction cases by encouraging mediation between landlords and tenants has been met with caution by housing lawyers.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/law-society-raises-con…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19.Australia's poorest electorates to lose millions when Covid welfare supplement ends
Luke Henriques-Gomes and Nick Evershed The Guardian (No paywall)Some of Australia’s poorest electorates could lose as much as $3m a fortnight in economic support if the coronavirus welfare supplement ends, new analysis reveals. The analysis of government data, broken down by federal electorate by Guardian Australia, estimates an average of nearly $2m per electorate could be lost every fortnight if the $150 supplement is not extended at the end of March.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/10/australia…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Welfare.‘Neglected’: Storm looms for renters as eviction protections near end
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)The end of March is pivotal for renters – and not in a good way. Eviction and rent protections in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia will all expire.
Federal income support through JobKeeper and JobSeeker supplements will evaporate. And bankruptcy pauses protecting some landlords will disappear in a puff of smoke — all in a single week. It all boils down to a multibillion-dollar hit to the pockets of financially distressed renters, which advocates warn could see tens of thousands evicted or unable to pay for basics like food and power.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/02/08/pandemic-…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Where residential landlords aren’t allowed to increase rents
Amelia Barnes Domain (Paywall)Are you a Victorian, West Australian, South Australian or Tasmanian residential tenant whose rent has increased over the pandemic? If you answered yes, you’ve likely been overpaying.
https://www.domain.com.au/advice/where-residential-landlords-are…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.