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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Oakland landlord hit with $3.9 million penalty for hazardous housing conditions
Natalie Orenstein (No paywall)From the United States ... A prominent Oakland landlord must pay the city of Oakland nearly $4 million after repeatedly renting illegal and hazardous units to tenants at several East Oakland properties, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled this month. (The Oaklandside)
https://oaklandside.org/2021/09/13/oakland-landlord-hit-with-3-9…
# International, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards.Community Lawyer of the Year
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out post for 16 September 2021 ... 2021 NSW Women Lawyers Achievement Awards, Community Lawyer of the Year Winner: Lehana De Silva, Solicitor - Aboriginal Support, Tenants' Union of New South Wales ... Lehana is a solicitor at the Tenants’ Union of NSW. She acts for individual tenants in public interest litigation, and provides advice, assistance and training to the state’s four Aboriginal Tenancy Advice and Advocacy Services. Lehana also advises solicitors and other caseworkers in community legal centres and organisations throughout NSW in the specialist areas of housing and residential tenancy law. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic she has produced up-to-date legal information and resources for impacted renters across NSW. Before joining the Tenants’ Union, Lehana worked for Supply Nation certified law firm, Chalk & Behrendt, and the Cancer Council Pro Bono Program.
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Aboriginal renters, Community Legal Centres, Coronavirus COVID-19.COVID in Wilcannia: a national disgrace we all saw coming
Susan Green The Conversation (No paywall)The COVID-19 crisis in Wilcannia demonstrates how entrenched neglect, combined with a global pandemic, have created a perfect storm impacting the most marginalised people in society. The treatment of the Barkindji people of Wilcannia is appalling by anyone’s standards and should be unacceptable to every Australian. The stories flooding out of Wilcannia of mistreatment of Aboriginal people should make every person stand up and demand immediate action. ... Overcrowded and poor-quality housing already results in poor health outcomes. The effects of overcrowded and poor quality housing during a viral pandemic cannot be overstated. Aboriginal people have been isolating in tents during cold desert nights to try to protect their families. They do not choose to live in overcrowded and poor-quality housing; that is all that is available.
https://theconversation.com/covid-in-wilcannia-a-national-disgra…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Health, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.September 2021 News
Shelter NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest housing news from Shelter NSW:
Housing Affordability and Supply in Australia – what’s the deal?
Housing challenges for Regional NSW
Submission on the Housing SEPP
‘Meanwhile Use’ being considered by the NSW parliament
Save the Date - Shelter NSW Local Housing Forum on October 14!
Women’s safety and affordable homes
2021 Australia Community Sector Survey
Affordable Housing Development and Investment Summit
Recent development submissions for Sydney
'The Private Rental Sector in Australia - Living with Uncertainty'
Energy rebates available
It's not too late to complete the Census!
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-september-2021-ebullet…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform.Homeless deaths in Australia’s richest state
Giovanni Torre (No paywall)As Western Australia posts a budget surplus of $5 billion, figures show more than one person a week is dying on the streets of Perth. ... Michelle Mackenzie, chief executive of Shelter WA, says the pandemic drove an increase in street homelessness, as well as an increase in fear and anxiety among homeless people. When the moratorium on rent increases and evictions ended in March, she saw an immediate increase in homelessness. Mackenzie says the number of deaths of homeless people reinforces the need for the state to invest in social housing. ... Dr Betsy Buchanan, who has worked with Aboriginal people as an advocate since 1978, says the housing system is “diabolical”. “I know of dozens of families who have lost someone to the streets,” she says. “Thousands of Aboriginal children have been evicted … These are people I have known since I started working in advocacy over 40 years ago. I know their history. The trauma and humiliation of eviction makes them relive the worst moments of their lives. How could they treat someone like that? It implies a deep-seated racism.”
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy/2021/09/18/home…
# Australia, Eviction, Homelessness, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.‘It's dire’: Covid fears for inner-city communities as Redfern Towers struck
Dijana Damjanovic and Nadine Silva SBS (No paywall)Redfern residents are deeply concerned for the safety and wellbeing of their community as NSW authorities confirm an emerging COVID-19 cluster across three public housing towers in the inner-city Sydney suburb.
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/09/16/its-dire-fears-in…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, State Government.Mortgage stress soars as RBA says tax system pushes up house prices
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Mortgage stress is spiking across key suburban electorates in Sydney and Melbourne despite record low interest rates as spiralling property prices leave two in five households struggling to make ends meet. ... Research by the University of NSW shows the proportion of households in stress has climbed to 42 per cent. [Meanwhile] The Reserve Bank says the way negative gearing interacts with the rest of the tax system is contributing to high house prices. ... [Also] it said the nation’s tax and transfer system encouraged investment in property and discouraged people from selling and moving, which then put upward pressure on prices. The capital gains tax concession, the exclusion of the family home from the age pension means test, the concession tax treatment on inherited family homes all encouraged people to hold on to property even as they got older, putting pressure on the market.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/mortgage-stress-soars-as…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.Out Of Time: California Legislators Won’t Extend Eviction Ban
Manuela Tobias (No paywall)California’s eviction protections will almost certainly not be extended once they expire after Sept. 30, the state Assembly Housing chairperson said today. The legislative session ends Friday, so that’s the last day that lawmakers could push off that deadline. But the political appetite just isn’t there to act, according to David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat who spearheaded the previous efforts to stall the displacement of tenants amid the pandemic. “I believed our eviction protections for tenants should be extended beyond September 30. The delta variant and the end of many unemployment benefits make that even more urgent,” Chiu told CalMatters. “Unfortunately, some of my colleagues feel differently, and there’s not enough consensus for that.” (Capradio)
https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/09/12/out-of-time-califor…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.