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
What tenancy protections are available for renters after the moratorium ends?
(No paywall)As Australia transitions out of the COVID-19 emergency period and moratoriums come to an end, several measures remain to support tenants and landlords. We’ve rounded up the key changes and financial support measures for each state and territory to help you navigate this period. (rent.com.au)
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.New Zealand commission launches inquiry into ‘massive human rights failure’ on housing
Tess McClure The Guardian (No paywall)New Zealand’s housing crisis has become a “massive human rights failure”, the Human Rights Commission has said, as it launches a national inquiry into the problem. “Successive governments have failed New Zealanders,” chief commissioner Paul Hunt said in a statement as he announced the inquiry. “New Zealand governments have signed up to a critically important human right: the right to a decent home. For generations, they have promised to create the conditions to enable everyone to live in a decent home, but this has not happened.” ... [But the United Nations'] special rapporteur and human rights commission have said it lacks a domestic legal framework establishing and protecting that right. The inquiry will establish a clearer definition of “decent housing” and then make recommendations along those lines. Also, check out the same story at RNZ: [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448245/human-rights-commission-launches-national-inquiry-into-housing-crisis]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/02/new-zealand-commis…
# International, Rent, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Young people.'Just a nightmare': Calls for more affordable housing to combat growing homelessness in Australia
Biwa Kwan SBS (No paywall)Advocates are calling for federal government intervention to combat the impacts of homelessness in Australia as charities report a surge in demand for their services during the pandemic. At Homelessness Week gets underway, Homelessness Australia says a diminishing provision of affordable housing is pushing more Australians into homelessness, a trend COVID-19 has only exacerbated. ... [CEO Jenny Smith says] "We need urgent government intervention. This problem can be overcome. All it requires is political will."
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/just-a-nightmare-calls-for-more-affo…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Older people, Race and ethnicity, Women.Lockdowns spark city exodus as thousands head to the hills
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydneysiders are abandoning the city in favour of cheaper housing and lockdown-free life in the state’s regions as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends migration around the country. A record net 11,800 people left the nation’s capital cities in the three months to the end of March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday, with Sydney and Melbourne hit hardest by the pandemic-fuelled drain. ... Of those leaving Sydney, the biggest movement was by people aged between 45 and 64, with a net 2700 ditching the nation’s largest city. They took their children, with a net loss of 2100 people aged under 14.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/lockdowns-spark-city-exo…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.Wall Street is buying up family homes. The rent checks are too juicy to ignore
Hanna Ziady (No paywall)Housing markets are hotter than ever, and big money is getting in on the act. Pension funds, investment firms and Wall Street banks are snapping up family homes in Europe and the United States at a rapid pace as prices rocket higher, looking for alternatives to lockdown-hit office parks and shopping malls, and betting that a permanent increase in remote working following the coronavirus pandemic will keep demand for suburban houses elevated. At the same time, the soaring cost of home ownership means that growing numbers of younger Americans and Brits renting rather than buying houses as they start families and gravitate toward the suburbs. Some of them may find their next landlord is based on Wall Street or in London's financial district. Analysts argue that this will improve standards in the rental sector and offer more choice in desirable neighborhoods. But some tenants who rent from corporate landlords dispute this, alleging substandard services and excessive rent increases. (CNN Business)
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/02/business/family-homes-wall-st…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Terrifying, cold and a lot of loud noises’: Homeless young people falling through safety net
Jewel Topsfield The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homelessness organisations warn that young homeless people are falling through the gaps, with many existing homelessness services geared towards adults. Melbourne City Mission chief executive Vicki Sutton said a quarter of Victoria’s homeless population were aged between 12 and 24, with 6000 having no safe place to sleep each night. “Despite the alarming number of young people seeking help from homelessness services, they make up only 2.9 per cent of main tenants in current models of social and public housing,” Ms Sutton says.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/terrifying-cold-and-a-l…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Young people.Homeless camp pops up at Parliament as Perth mourns deaths of 56 rough sleepers
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A homeless tent city has appeared on the doorstep of Parliament to protest the shortage of affordable housing in Western Australia. About a dozen people slept in tents and mattresses at Solidarity Park on Tuesday night, flanked by two banners with the words “housing crisis, humanitarian crisis”. Volunteers helped the rough sleepers with warm drinks, food, and clothing. It comes six months after homeless people camped at Pioneer Park in Fremantle as the state’s housing crisis reached breaking point, and just hours after mourners gathered at the steps of Parliament to honour Noongar mother-of-six Alana Garlett, who died in hospital after falling ill while sleeping rough in Perth’s CBD. ... [The Fremantle camp] pushed the homelessness issue to the fore and became a hot topic in the lead-up to the March state election. Campers were moved into temporary accommodation in hotels in February ... Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. But advocates say it doesn’t go far enough and more investment in public housing is needed.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/homeless-camp-…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, State Government.Rental crisis hits pet owners hard, increasing homelessness and demand on animal shelters
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)The rental crisis is proving an extra challenge for pet owners across regional New South Wales, forcing some into homelessness and others to rehome their beloved animals to improve their chances of finding a place to live. Brad Hayes found the idea of giving up his dog Kosci too difficult, so instead he has been living in a tent for six months on the state's south coast while attempting to find a pet-friendly rental. ... "I applied for — I think — six in a week and when they found out I had a dog they said, 'No, we don't have a place for the dog.'" ... [Joel Dignam from Better renting] said New South Wales should adopt policies like in the ACT or Victoria, where landlords weren't allowed to discriminate against an applicant for having an animal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/rental-crisis-hits-pet-ow…
# NSW, Discrimination, Rent, Homelessness, Regional NSW.