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
Can America Learn From France’s Award-Winning Public Housing Architects?
Kriston Capps (No paywall)For their socially oriented projects, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, an award typically reserved for high-flying design. ... The architects rejected the official strategy of demolition and reconstruction [of public housing], prioritizing transformation in place. ... [And, in the United States, progressive advocates and lawmakers are turning back to public housing] ... with their proposed Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made retrofits for public housing the engine for jobs and climate action.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-17/pritzker-priz…
# International, Public and community housing, Estate renewal.Tasmanian Greens to introduce bill to keep rental increases in line with CPI
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)We signed a lease in January and the lease had said that the rent was going to be $220 per week and that was fine no problem, we've been living there five years," she said. "Then last week we got an email stating that they were looking to increase our rent to $350 per week starting in May." ... Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor will today introduce a bill into state parliament that aims to implement the model for rent increases used in the Australian Capital Territory, where rent increases are in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), plus 10 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-18/greens-rent-increase-cpi/…
# Legal significance Australia, Rent, Housing market.The future of community housing includes social solutions
Amanda Woodard The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Demand for community housing is on the rise. It’s not just because there is a housing shortage – New South Wales alone has an immediate shortfall of around 200,000 social and affordable houses – but also because community housing alleviates social problems.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/the-futur…
# NSW, Public and community housing.Push talks with Denmark’s Housing Minister
(No paywall)The Filmmaker and the Advocate bring you an exclusive conversation with Denmark’s Housing Minister – Kaare Dybvad Bek – one of the few politicians in the world to have had the courage to take on Blackstone and other institutional investors. The Minister recounts the new housing reality in Copenhagen where private equity, pension funds and asset management firms have started to dominate, imposing on tenants huge rent increases (often double) and unnecessary renovations driving tenants out of their homes and neighbourhoods. (International Union of Tenants)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/push-talks-with-denmarks-housing-…
# International, Rent.Government Quietly Shelves Plan To House 3,300 Rough Sleepers By This Month
Graeme Demianyk Huffington Post (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Ministers appear to have quietly abandoned plans to house more than 3,000 rough sleepers by the end of March despite a high-profile pledge to tackle homelessness during the pandemic. In October, housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced more than 3,300 homes had been “approved”, and would be ready by this month, as he hailed “the most effective action taken by any country in the world to protect those sleeping rough from the pandemic”.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rough-sleepers-housing-je…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Sydney building ‘nightmare’ set to cost Maryam her life savings
Carrie Fellner The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney apartment buyer stands to lose her life savings or be forced to buy into a 300-unit development that she has been warned contains major defects.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-building-nightmare-se…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Inclusionary Housing: Secrets to Success
Stephanie Reyes and Ruoniu Wang (No paywall)From the United States ... A new survey of unprecedented scale gives us insight into the diverse range what of inclusionary housing programs look like and which ones are successful. Inclusionary housing programs tie the creation of affordable, below-market-rate units to the construction of new market-rate development. In its simplest form, an inclusionary housing program might require developers to sell or rent 10 to 20 percent of new residential units to lower-income residents at prices they can afford.(Shelterforce)
https://shelterforce.org/2021/03/10/inclusionary-housing-secrets…
# International, Affordable housing, Planning and development.Australia's real estate market 'seems quite odd'. Even the experts are finding it hard to read
Belinda Sommer and Taryn Priadko ABC (No paywall)Sky high prices have become all too familiar to Hal Pawson, a Professor of Housing Research at University of New South Wales. For decades he has analysed the plight of renters and potential buyers trying to raise a home deposit, and the growing wealth of homeowners. Australia's 30-year housing affordability decline has been among the worst in the developed world. ... Professor Pawson says the problem is structural, because Australian governments have effectively subsidised housing investment through tax incentives for home owners. Combined with low interest rates, this has changed the way many of us think about our homes – they are an asset, a place to grow capital and transfer wealth to the next generation. "It is a worldwide trend, this 'financialisation' of housing, but it's on steroids in Australia," Professor Pawson says. (Radio National)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/australian-housing-market…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.