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
Out of sight
Che Chorley and Steve Vivian ABC (No paywall)In the crowded homes of the Northern Territory’s remote communities, residents are trying to keep their hopes of a better future alive. On most afternoons in the community of Rockhole, Evelyn Andrews can be found holding court in her front yard, sat beneath the shade of a tree. At house number 21, she shares her home with between 10 and 15 other people. “We love it in the community, we’ve got the river right there and the kids are safe,” she says. “But we need some more houses.” Evelyn’s community of Rockhole sits just outside Katherine, the Northern Territory’s third-biggest town, in Jawoyn country about 340 kilometres south of Darwin. For the first two years of the pandemic, remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory were untouched by coronavirus. But in November, the virus began to spread through remote communities. Rockhole was one of the first to be hit. [Read on]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-19/remote-housing-homelands-…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Personal stories.Better than sleeping rough’: Newtown boarding house fire puts spotlight on sector
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)Advocates call for reform including a licensing regime and better enforcement of existing regulations after tragedy that killed three men. ... Chris Martin, a housing policy expert at UNSW, says some [local councils] are also mindful that closing a place down can mean “making a group of people homeless”. Martin would like to see an accreditation regime to regulate who can operate boarding houses. The idea was floated in an ongoing review of the Boarding Houses Act, which is being overhauled to include other similar settings as the “Shared Accomodation Act”. Martin says it has not been picked up by government. ... [John] Engeler, of Shelter NSW, believes only community housing providers should have rights to run boarding houses.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/20/better-th…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Housing market, State Government.Aboriginal people in WA’s public housing system are fighting against a relentless tide of ‘punitive policy’
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)[Nannette Knapp’s eviction for non-payment of rent from public housing] and the debt that came with it, triggered nearly a decade of homelessness and despair. Her story is one of hard-won resilience and a desire to fight against tremendous odds: the systemic poverty instigated and perpetuated by what her advocates describe as punitive government policy. ... Until she had paid off the debt, she was told, she would not be eligible for another house. She did not believe she would be able to pay it off, as her only income was Centrelink payments. ... “Aboriginal people can’t compete in the private market. They often have a lot of trauma or they’re looking after extra kids. They’ve got very poor health and hardly have any money,” [WA housing advocate Betsy] Buchanan says. “It’s a discriminatory system. It discriminates against Aboriginal people at every turn. You can’t ‘try hard’ against those odds.” ... Guardian Australia has separately spoken to numerous Aboriginal people living homeless in Western Australia. Debt to the Housing Authority is a frequent complaint. Those who are barred from access to housing thanks to such debt often lodge with other family members who have existing public housing tenancies, leading to overcrowding. The overcrowding increases the likelihood of damages to the property or neighbour complaints against the tenant, which in turn increases the likelihood of further debt or eviction.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/20/aborigina…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, State Government, Welfare, Women.Housing stress weighs on voters as cost-of-living election looms
Dana Daniel The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Forty per cent of renters in most Sydney and Melbourne electorates are suffering financial stress, new data shows as the major parties prepare to fight an election on cost-of-living concerns. Labor electorates, including marginal seats, are strongly affected by renters under financial strain, data from the University of NSW City Futures Research Centre reveals, with between 61.5 per cent and 76.5 per cent of renters financially stressed in the top five NSW and Victorian seats. ... More than 150 community and faith organisations and unions have signed a joint letter by Everybody’s Home to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, calling on the government to use the March 29 budget to improve housing affordability for Australians struggling in the rental market.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/housing-stress-weighs-on…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘There is a whole lot more to negotiate’: how Covid-19 has changed housemate hunting
Maddie Thomas The Guardian (No paywall)Screening potential flatmates is always a risky business, even without the added pressure of a pandemic. ... Jemima Mowbray, policy and advocacy manager at the Tenants’ Union of New South Wales, says questions about what kinds of risk people are comfortable with have become essential in recent months. “In lockdown, there were clear restrictions in place. But now you have to make your own decisions and there is a whole lot more to negotiate,” says Mowbray. “People want to have a friendly conversation, and it might be easy to get along with someone, but you need to establish the ground rules, how you live and what you are comfortable with … Covid makes that really clear.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/21/there-is-a-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Share houses, Coronavirus COVID-19.Fire deaths illustrate terrible consequences of unfair housing system
Jack de Groot The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The deaths of at least three people in a horrific fire at a Newtown boarding house on Tuesday illustrate the terrible consequences that can result from a lack of housing choice. Many older-style boarding houses are places of last resort. The men residing at the Newtown house would likely have had no other accommodation option. A boarding house would have been all they could afford, because there is not enough social and affordable housing in Sydney or in NSW. ... The lack of social and affordable housing is driving people towards living in older-style boarding houses and into other marginal rent arrangements. These include paying to live in a shed or garage, or in illegally cramped accommodation, or any other residence that falls below acceptable standards. This issue doesn’t just affect men. Women aged 55 and over are Australia’s fastest growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness. ... We also need to strengthen the rights of all renters, to provide greater security of tenure, avoid unnecessary evictions, and make sure all renters have access to a fairer process if they are at risk of losing their home. This is particularly true for people living in boarding houses, where there is a much lower bar to evict someone.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fire-deaths-illustrate-terri…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Older people, Women.Rent assistance, grants for flood affected NSW residents welcomed amid 'price gouging' concerns
Jack Needham (No paywall)NSW's peak tenancy group has welcomed government funding for those affected by the devastating flooding in the state, but has issued a warning that further action may be needed to prevent 'price gouging' in the tight rental market. (realestate view)
https://view.com.au/news/vic/rent-assistance-grants-for-flood-af…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.After the flood: Lismore’s future in doubt with 4000 homes uninhabitable
Laura Chung The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)As of March 18, there have been 10,300 damaged buildings, of which 4000 are not habitable. In the Northern Rivers region, which includes the Tweed, Lismore, Ballina region, 3580 buildings are not habitable. The new wave of housing need compounds an already dire situation. ... NCOSS chief executive Joanna Quilty said people were living in sub-standard arrangements and were faced with having to return to unsafe and damaged houses. “Many social housing properties have been impacted and are now uninhabitable. These people are effectively homeless,” she said. “Unfortunately, the immediate measures put in place to get people into rental accommodation are not doing the job because there simply isn’t enough rental stock out there. “We urgently need innovative and urgent solutions to get people into safe and secure housing." Also, read Elias Visontay's article entitled: 'Flood-affected Lismore residents with nowhere to go return to homes deemed uninhabitable' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/20/flood-affected-lismore-residents-with-nowhere-to-go-return-to-homes-deemed-uninhabitable].
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/after-the-floo…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.