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
Private landlords and hotels ‘cashing in’ on England’s hidden homelessness crisis
Kiran Stacey, Michael Goodier and Olivia Lee The Guardian (No paywall)Private landlords and hotel owners are charging councils far in excess of market rent to house people who would otherwise end up on the street, an investigation has found, laying bare the depth of England’s hidden homelessness crisis. Local authorities in England are paying 60% more for rooms in places such as bed and breakfasts and hostels than it would cost to rent similar-sized accommodation on the private market, with half of them spending double the local going rate. More than 100,000 households are living in temporary accommodation in England, and the UK now has the worst homelessness problem in the developed world when they are taken into account.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/27/homelessness-cri…
# International, .60,000 Americans to lose their rental assistance and risk eviction unless Congress acts
Jesse Bedayn AP News (No paywall)Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn, she prayed. In ensuing nights, she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance — finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee. Those walls were possible through a federal program that pays rent for some 60,000 families and individuals fleeing homelessness or domestic violence. Espinal was fleeing both. But the program, Emergency Housing Vouchers, is running out of money — and quickly.
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/60000-america…
# International, Eviction.Bipartisan affordable housing package could be on cutting room floor this session, key lawmaker says
Caroline Cummings CBS News (No paywall)The tied Minnesota House on Tuesday approved its housing budget proposal on a bipartisan vote. But it didn't include a package some Republicans and Democrats had high hopes for to boost affordable housing development at a time when the state is short 100,000 homes — and its future this session isn't bright. That "Yes to Homes" agenda, which includes legislation to cut red tape to increase starter homes like townhomes and duplexes among other ideas, likely won't clear the finish line this year, said Rep. Michael Howard, DFL-Richfield, the co-chair of the chamber's housing committee. There are continued concerns from local governments about implementation, he added.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/bipartisan-affordable-hou…
# International, Rent.Australians could be waiting more than 70 years for affordable housing if prices follow path pushed by major parties
Patrick Commins The Guardian (No paywall)Australians would have to wait 70 years for affordable housing if property values follow the “sustainable growth” path advocated by the two major parties. Labor and the Coalition this week launched signature policies to tackle the worsening housing affordability crisis, but both sides of politics said they did not welcome the idea of falling house prices. “Our plan is to get our country back on track to help young Australians realise the dream of home ownership again,” Peter Dutton said in his opening remarks in Wednesday night’s second leaders’ debate.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/23/australia…
# Hot topic Australia, .Tracy is about to begin chemo and she’s also getting evicted. Welcome to Australia’s housing crisis
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)In three weeks Tracy Adams starts chemotherapy for bowel cancer. She will also be evicted from her home. The 63-year-old has been living in her Queensland rental for five years and, despite her landlords knowing she has just been diagnosed with cancer, they have told her to go. “A few weeks ago they gave me basically a month’s notice to leave because they said they think they’ll have a better chance of selling the place if it’s vacant,” Adams says. “At the same time, I also got a diagnosis of bowel cancer. I have to be out of here by the 14th of May, which is also the first week I start chemo and radiation. “I will be homeless. At the moment I am trying to sell everything I own.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/28/australia…
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Rent.Struggling renters are all but invisible this election
Peter Mares Crikey (No paywall)Looking at the major parties’ housing announcements, you could conclude that renters don’t vote. Instead, both sides are pitching hard to aspiring first-home buyers, telling them that a vote for Labor or the Coalition will pull the great Australian dream back within reach so they can start paying off their own mortgage instead of someone else’s. Peter Dutton’s promise to allow interest on mortgage payments to be deducted from income tax for the first five years of a mortgage, and Albanese’s offer to facilitate a mortgage on a 5% deposit, may be alluring. But I suspect voters can see the pitfalls.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/04/16/2025-federal-election-housi…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.‘Brutal rental market’ sees spike in number of Victorian tenants evicted because they can’t make payments
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)The number of Victorian renters receiving eviction notices because they have not paid the rent is five times higher than in 2021, a report has found, underscoring tenants’ increasing struggles to keep up with the cost of living. The report from the state’s commissioner for residential tenancies, released on Tuesday, also found that 58% of rental households had received a rent increase in the 12 months to September 2023, up from 29.8% in the previous 12 months. The findings led Tenants Victoria to call for a “rental fairness formula” to curtail excessive rises in rents, and for more support for renters facing “brutal rental market conditions”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/30/victoria-…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, .No relief: the Australian battleground electorates where rental pain is worst
Luca Ittimani and Nick Evershed The Guardian (No paywall)Renters in battleground electorates in western Sydney, outer Melbourne and Perth are among those feeling the most financial pressure, new analysis shows, as experts condemn the scarce help offered to renters in Australia’s election campaign. Key seats including Western Australia’s Bullwinkel and Werriwa in New South Wales are home to suburbs with the worst rent affordability and biggest price hikes, data compiled by Suburbtrends for Guardian Australia has revealed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/30/sydney-me…
# Must read Australia, .