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
Why renting is a health risk
ABC (No paywall)Some health risks are obvious, like smoking, or eating too much sugar. But what about renting? As many as a million Australians live in housing that harms their health, with renters the worst off. So what's the health cost of having so much substandard housing? And how do you even begin to fix a problem like that? Featured: Alice, Sydney tenant Professor Rebecca Bentley, Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Dr Kim Loo, General Practitioner. (The Signal) You might also check out this article from 'The Conversation' from 26 October 2020. Go to: [https://theconversation.com/mould-and-damp-health-costs-are-about-3-times-those-of-sugary-drinks-we-need-a-healthy-housing-agenda-147743]
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-signal/heallthy-housin…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Minimum habitability standards.Poor housing harms health of 20% of renters in England, says Shelter
Robert Booth and Patrick Butler The Guardian (No paywall)Poor housing is harming the health of one in five renters in England, with mould, damp and cold the main triggers of sickness, a major survey by the housing charity Shelter has revealed. Approximately 1.9m households could be suffering physical and mental problems as a result of poor housing conditions as well as uncertainty caused by struggles to pay the rent and repeated evictions, polling of over 3,000 private renters suggests. A quarter of all renters said they were affected by damp and mould and by being unable to heat their homes. They were three times more likely to say housing was harming their health than those without the problems. The study also detailed how almost one in four renters said their housing situation had left them feeling “stressed and anxious” since the start of the pandemic.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/13/poor-housing-har…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Mould.Black mould, termites and no electricity or hot water: Inside the Aboriginal housing divide
Ella Archibald-Binge ABC (No paywall)Annabelle Dargin knows what it's like to endure hardship. The Wiradjuri woman grew up during an era of racial segregation, when discriminative laws governed the lives of Aboriginal people and forced them to live in tin huts on missions or reserves on the outskirts of towns. Much has changed since then, but the 78-year-old is still living in what she describes as "neglected" housing. Most rooms are without electricity, cables are exposed and, for nine months, the great-grandmother washed out of a bucket due to a lack of hot water. "It's ridiculous," she said. "Give me the mission any day."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/condobolin-aboriginal-ten…
# Video NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Repairs, Utilities water energy internet, Housing market, Mould.Heritage-listed Victorian terraces in historic The Rocks precinct sell for $36.25m
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The NSW government has sold off a set of heritage-listed Victorian terraces in historic The Rocks for $36.25 million under a 99-year leasehold of the land. Also, check out the same story in 'The Urban Developer' at: [https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/longs-lane-the-rocks-sold-assembly-nashcap]
https://www.domain.com.au/news/heritage-listed-victorian-terrace…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Heritage listings, Housing market, State Government.Housing played ‘significant role’ in higher COVID-19 rates among Black and minority ethnic people, says official report
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... [The report entitled] 'Coronavirus: lessons learned to date' ... said the death rates among people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities was “unacceptably high” and pointed to housing, working conditions and “possible biological factors” as things that contributed to “unequal outcomes”. The wide-ranging 145-page report was published today by the Health and Social Care Committee and lays out the mistakes made and the successes of the government’s response to COVID-19 during the first year and a half of the pandemic. “Increased exposure to COVID-19 as a result of people’s housing and working conditions played a significant role” in the higher death rates amongst BAME people,” it said.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-played-signifi…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.Apartment tower given temporary reprieve after engineer’s warnings of collapse
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The state government has decided not to evacuate an apartment tower in Sydney’s south-west despite an engineer’s report warning that the building was at serious risk of collapse due to structural flaws. After emergency inspections on Wednesday, NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler said inspectors from Public Works Advisory had advised that there was “no immediate safety risk” to residents of the 10-storey tower in Canterbury. “They will now take the time necessary to review the materials gathered during the investigation,” he said. ... The inspection was sparked by a structural engineer hired by owners warning that the 10-storey tower was a “risk to occupants”, and a collapse would also lead to “catastrophic damage” to two other apartment buildings that make up the Vicinity complex. ... The complex on Charles Street has about 276 apartments, and was completed about six years ago by Toplace. ... The concerns about the Canterbury complex come just months after Toplace agreed to provide $11 million in security to fix any future defects in a Castle Hill apartment complex, as well as agreeing to guarantee its structural integrity for the next two decades.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/apartment-tower-under-threat…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Water leaks, cracks and flawed fire safety systems: Sydney’s apartments are riddled with building defects
Laura Crommelin, Bill Randolph, Hazel Easthope and Martin Loosemore The Conversation (No paywall)Buying an apartment is the biggest financial commitment many of us will ever make. Unfortunately, our new research shows that defects in apartment buildings are commonplace: just over half of Sydney’s apartments had at least one type of defect, while more than one in four had at least three different defects. We also found it is virtually impossible for buyers to know whether the apartment they are buying is good quality.
https://theconversation.com/water-leaks-cracks-and-flawed-fire-s…
# Must read NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.‘No trust’: Buyers of defective units in Parramatta vent their anger
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buyers of apartments in two 22-storey Parramatta towers found to have serious defects say they are trapped in a nightmare, with some no longer able to get loans from banks to settle on their purchases. The plight of the buyers of apartments off the plan in the Imperial complex in Parramatta’s CBD was detailed during a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Monday into the regulation of building standards.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no-trust-buyers-of-defective…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.