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
Fundraising for housing: the rental crisis pushing some to the brink
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Soaring rents across Australia are hitting renters hard, with widespread competition for a dwindling amount of safe and affordable homes. This tight rental market is pushing some lower-income people into precarious housing or homelessness. Inequality reporter Stephanie Convery explores the power imbalance in the rental market, and what the Labor government could do to improve affordability and renters’ rights
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2022/may/30/fun…
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.Single mothers hope Anthony Albanese’s upbringing might spur change
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)It’s late on Saturday night and a jubilant Anthony Albanese is on stage at an RSL club in Sydney’s inner west with a message for families like Leilani Sinclair’s. “It says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mum who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown, can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister,” he says, emotion etched on his face. Meanwhile, Sinclair is in Canberra with her two boys, settling into a new home on the outskirts of the capital, about 20 minutes’ drive from parliament house. Like Maryanne Albanese, Sinclair is a single mother. Her sons are 12 and eight. She moved into public housing in Canberra this month after two years in crisis accommodation and four long years on the waiting list. Sinclair hopes her boys will have options. ... As Albanese concluded his speech on Saturday, he turned back to families like Sinclair’s. “I hope there are families in public housing watching this tonight,” he said. “Because I want every parent to be able to tell their child, ‘No matter where you live or where you come from, in Australia the doors of opportunity are open to us all.’” Sinclair heard the new prime minister’s message loud and clear. She will soon learn if Albanese has heard hers.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/28/single-mo…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Families.Metres from millionaires row, homelessness crisis worsens on Mornington Peninsula
Benjamin Preiss The Age (Paywall)A short drive from some of Victoria’s most expensive seaside real estate on the Mornington Peninsula there are rough sleepers staying long term in tents in the foreshore campgrounds. Homelessness has become so dire on the peninsula that the council has allowed some rough sleepers to move into the camping grounds that are often prized summer holiday spots. But many more are couch-surfing, sleeping in cars or living in rooming houses. Ben Smith, manager of the Mornington Community, Information and Support Centre, says the growing use of its free shower service is another sign that homelessness is rising in the area. ... [And] soaring rents and house prices were the biggest causes of homelessness in the region, with landlords often raising rents to make the most of their investments, particularly after buying a new property.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/metres-from-milliona…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness.Renters are facing eviction as the National Rental Affordability Scheme winds up
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)Tanya Bluett can't stop crying. The 62-year-old is about to be evicted from her home of nine years. "I believed I was here 'til the day I died," Ms Bluett said. "I've put so much effort into this, and so much love into the way I've done my garden … the children see this as Nanna's home." Her home, which she shares with her grandson, was built as part of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). But the federally-funded scheme is being wound up in 2026. Ms Bluett's unit in the northern Tasmanian town of Perth is due to be sold, along with five others in the same cul-de-sac. ... There has been criticism that NRAS has been a windfall for private developers and that the subsidies were higher than they needed to be. "It gave too much away to those private for profit investors in it, it asked far too little of them in return," Chris Martin, a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales' City Futures Research Centre, said. Mr Martin said the wind up of NRAS had exposed a massive shortage of affordable homes across the country. "The latest estimate is that we need in the order of about 700,000 properties, additional properties to meet the need of low and moderate income households going out to 2035." He said the end of NRAS also highlighted the brutal nature of eviction. "It's a problem that is invisible."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-28/renters-eviction-tasmania…
# Australia, Eviction, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Landlords and agents.40% of landlords say they would not rent out their property to people on benefits
Liam Geraghty (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Almost half of landlords have told the government they would refuse to rent their property to people receiving benefits, which is unlawful. Around four in 10 of the 9,000 landlords quizzed in the official English Private Landlord Survey said they wouldn’t let their property to someone in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit – a stance described by rent campaigners as “disgusting, immoral and illegal”. While there is no outright law against the practice, two court rulings in England have established it is unlawful to discriminate against people on benefits. ... Nick Ballard, head organiser and tenants union Acorn. “This income-based discrimination means renters already struggling to find an affordable home have to search from a more limited pool and are often shut out of the market. “Landlords can’t just decide which laws they do or don’t follow, and we call on the government to act strongly to ensure that these prejudices are not acted upon.”
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/landlords-renting-tenants-…
# International, Discrimination, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Welfare.Australia’s housing crisis: a path forward?
Alan Pears The Fifth Estate (No paywall)There is something wrong with Australia’s approach to housing. We build among the biggest houses in the world, yet most of them are under-occupied, with almost half of them having at least two bedrooms more than are needed. Many people own multiple homes. A declining proportion of home buyers can afford to buy – usually not because of the cost of the building itself, but because of exploding land prices.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/australias-housin…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Rental prices continue record-breaking rise
Max Towle (No paywall)From New Zealand ... The cost of renting keeps surging, with median rents for April hitting a record-breaking $580 a week. The latest figures from TradeMe shows tenants are now paying, on average, $40 a week more than they were this time last year. And - the supply of rental properties continues to decline. Renters United spokesperson Ashok Jacob spoke to Max Towle. (Radio NZ)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/middayreport/audio/201…
# Audio International, Rent, Housing market.San Diego renters protected with new 'no fault' eviction ban
Brian White (No paywall)San Diego renters can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they are a little bit more secure as the city’s new eviction moratorium is now in place for renters who are up-to-date on their rent payments and abiding by the terms of their leases. “San Diego cannot afford to have one more person enter into homelessness and this is a way to prevent that,” said San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who championed this measure. ... Under the moratorium, if a landlord or family member wants to move into the unit, they need to provide the tenant with 90 days-notice. If they want to take the property off the rental market, they now must provide six months-notice. ... The ‘no fault’ eviction moratorium is set to expire September 30 or 60 days after the pandemic state of emergency ends, whichever comes first.
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/paradise-at-a-price/san-…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.