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
The human right to a decent home
Hon Kevin Bell AO KC Australian Lawyers Alliance ()This special issue of Precedent examines the law in relation to the home. I want to do so from the perspective of international human rights law, and not from the point of view of a particular legal category of the law such as contract or tort, but from the perspective of the housing system as a whole. The purpose and central values of international human rights law are pro hominem, which is to say, ‘for the human person’. Taking that as my starting point, I want to discuss how purposes and values shape, or not, the way that the housing system currently works with respect to people. I argue that the purposes and values of the private market have been dominant in the housing system for decades and are now.
https://www.lawyersalliance.com.au/Web/web/RESOURCES/Precedent-a…
# Research alert Australia, .'A housing disaster': The case against demolishing Melbourne's public housing
Sydney Lang SBS (No paywall)The Victorian Government's plans to demolish Melbourne's 44 public housing towers are facing yet another legal challenge, as independent reports say the plan is deeply flawed. The Inner Melbourne Community Legal Centre is launching an appeal to a Supreme Court decision dismissing claims Home Victoria was in breach of tenant human rights. Days before resigning in 2023, former Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews announced a plan to demolish all 44 of Victoria's public housing towers. As Australia grapples with an ongoing housing crisis, plans to demolish the homes of 10,000 Victorians and rebuild them by 2051, has many experts and residents scratching their head. In April, the Supreme Court of Victoria dismissed a class action from tenants opposing the decision. Determined to be heard, the residents are launching an appeal.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/a-housing-disaster-t…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing.'Quasi-policing powers' for new armed NT police public safety officers spark concern
Lillian Rangiah ABC (No paywall)A plan to equip Northern Territory transit and public housing safety officers with "quasi-policing powers", including to carry guns on buses, in supermarkets and public housing, has been slammed as a "deeply irresponsible escalation" that could put lives at risk. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family. The newly announced police public safety officers (PPSOs) are set to replace police auxiliaries, transit safety officers and public housing safety officers in the territory next year, as frontline responders to violence and aggression in public places.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-20/nt-police-public-safety-o…
# Hot topic Australia, Discrimination.We need another housing option — between isolation and communes
Feng Xue The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Intermediate housing offers affordability, flexibility and connection – if we design for real lives, not just floor plans. As Australia falls behind on its target to build 1.2 million new homes within five years, we continue to cling to a housing ideal that no longer fits the times. The image of the detached house on a quarter acre block has long defined success, but in today’s economy, that dream is not only out of reach for many — it may also be making us lonelier, less healthy, and more disconnected from the people around us.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/we-need-another-h…
# Australia, .Queensland public housing tenants to be evicted after three warnings for serious behaviour in a year
Claudia Williams ABC (No paywall)Public housing tenants in Queensland who are issued three warnings for serious behaviour in a year could be evicted under a new government policy. The new policy, which will come into effect in July, will also see tenants who are evicted for committing illegal offences banned from reapplying for two years. Housing advocates have expressed disappointment that they were not consulted by the government, and hold concerns it could lead to the most vulnerable in the community becoming homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-14/queensland-public-housing…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Seniors who call Shark Bay in Western Australia home trade caravans for a house
Lina Elsaadi ABC (No paywall)Nearly everywhere in Australia is grappling with a lack of affordable housing. The small West Australian coastal hamlet of Shark Bay, with fewer than 900 residents, is no different. Bronwyn Hook has lived in the area for 11 years in a caravan. "There was nowhere else to live … I couldn't afford rent," she said. So when the state government and Shire of Shark Bay finished construction of 12 social homes for people over 60, Ms Hook could not contain her excitement. "I've got a toilet … this shower is more than twice the size of [mine]," Ms Hook said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-04/shark-bay-seniors-social-…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.Eviction is not a housing plan: Queensland Government policies are harmful and punitive
Tabitha Lean, Debbie Kilroy and Brig H Croakey Media (No paywall)The Queensland Government’s Budget, handed down this week, includes a $5.6 billion investment in social and community housing to support its plans to deliver 53,500 new social homes by 2044. While the Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) welcomes the investment in social housing, the organisation calls for more detail on eligibility for social housing, and how the Government will support those on low incomes but not eligible for social housing.
https://www.croakey.org/eviction-is-not-a-housing-plan-queenslan…
# Must read, Research alert Australia, Eviction.Rent crisis: Aussies paying people to attend inspections
Lydia Kellner realestate.com.au (No paywall)Nabbing a rental property has become increasingly difficult, but some Aussies are making money by helping others attend inspections. Adam Walker, 29 from Dee Why in Sydney’s Northern beaches, has made well over $2500 since joining outsourcing company Airtasker 18 months ago, carrying out more than 50 inspections for those who can’t attend themselves. “I work in the removalist industry, so for me it’s kind of a thing I do in my downtime,” he said. “The majority of my inspections are midweek, so a Monday or a Wednesday, but there are also agents who do by appointment only where I’ll have the whole place to myself. “Depending on the client, I could take photos of the inside and the outside. I also take video from the street and entrance of the building and a detailed video of the insight of the building.”
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rent-crisis-aussies-paying-pe…
# Australia, Starting a tenancy.