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 Evictions Surprised Trailer Park Residents. The Protest Stunned Officials.
Campbell Robertson The New York Times (No paywall)From the United States ... Under a slate-colored sky, the holdouts gathered in what remained of the North Fork Mobile Home Park. Around them it looked as if a hurricane had blown through, leaving scattered cinder blocks, capsized sofas and porches affixed to thin air. The small circle — among them single mothers, a factory worker, a retiree, two community organizers — sat on kitchen chairs discussing their next move: recruiting for a boycott. ... For more than two months, a fight has burned in Morehead, a small college town in the hills of eastern Kentucky. It began in early March, when the residents of roughly 65 mobile homes at North Fork were told they had a month and a half to leave and take their homes with them. A new development was coming, bringing restaurants and stores, jobs and tax revenue. The city was subsidizing it. The trailer park had to go. ... And though most of the homes have now been hauled away or left behind, the campaign has rolled on, along with a debate over the obligations of a city to those dislodged by its growth and a lesson about how combative democracy has become — even in a small town — in an age of social media and protest.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/us/kentucky-trailer-park-prot…
# International, Eviction, Land lease communities, Planning and development.Homelessness in regional South Australia is nearing unprecedented levels and it's families who suffer
Kelly Hughes ABC (No paywall)At 45, Minyon Smart, a mother of two special needs children, has found herself "effectively homeless". After her marriage broke down earlier this year, she was forced to move back in with her mother in Renmark, in South Australia's rural Riverland region, and is now struggling to navigate her new way of life. ... Kate Colvin, the CEO of the Everybody's Home campaign, which is trying to fix Australia's "broken housing system", said the housing market did not meet the needs of people across the country. "Too many people are missing out," Ms Colvin said. "Many people were already struggling with housing affordability in the regions, and things are just getting tougher. "We're really concerned about rising homelessness across the country."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-21/rental-shortage-in-the-re…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Regional NSW.Hidden UK homelessness is about to get much worse, with Covid support being cut
Freya Marshall Payne The Guardian (No paywall)From 1 June landlords will be able to evict tenants – a particular concern for women hit by a ‘shecession’ during the pandemic ... Rough sleeping is the most extreme and visible experience of poverty and injustice in the UK. So, a year ago, when the pandemic hit and people were advised to “stay home”, the vulnerability and visibility of people on the streets forced the government to roll out its Everyone In scheme. It showed what campaigners have long known to be true: that rough sleeping could be ended if there was a consistent political will. ... [But] rough sleeping is only the tip of the iceberg that is Britain’s homelessness crisis,the majority of which still goes unseen. Hidden homelessness includes rough sleepers never officially counted by the ministry of housing, communities and local government but also people sofa-surfing, crammed into overcrowded private rentals without their own space, squatting, living in vehicles, starting new relationships or staying in abusive relationships to keep a roof over their heads. ... We are also seeing a “shecession”, with women furloughed and laid off at higher numbers than their male counterparts, which is exacerbating the existing gender housing-affordability gap. Combined Homelessness and Information Network reports show more women being counted on the streets than usual and, because we know that many women sleeping rough carefully hide themselves for safety, numbers will be higher.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/22/hidden-uk-…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Women.Domain warns potential renters about phishing scam asking for 'deposit'
ABC (No paywall)People asking about rental properties on the Domain website have been warned about scammers potentially getting access to their personal details, including name, phone number and postcode.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-20/domain-warns-renters-abou…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.Lake Hume resident Deborah Gibson faces eviction from home on Crown land in Victoria's high country
Anna Chisholm ABC (No paywall)One woman's struggle to remain living on a property she calls her "little patch of paradise" has put the spotlight on the complexities of Crown land. ... But she's on uncertain turf, as the privately owned home is on public land. The former station master's house is currently owned by her late partner's mother Marie Cadman, who lives elsewhere. "Debbie can live there as long as she likes," Ms Cadman said. But it's not that simple.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-22/lake-hume-resident-faces-…
# Australia, Rent, Regional NSW, Squatting.UTS Indigenous residential college will help 'close the gap' for future students, says professor
Mawunyo Gbogbo ABC (No paywall)Australia's first Indigenous residential college will help provide easier access to the most vital ingredient in "closing the gap" — education, says the University of Technology Sydney's (UTS) Professor Michael McDaniel.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-24/closing-the-gap-indigenou…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Students.‘If there’s community transmission, our population will die’: Vaccinating Sydney’s homeless
Mary Ward The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)[Jayden Poi] the 44-year-old resident at St Vincent de Paul’s Matthew Talbot hostel for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness was among more than 100 people vaccinated at the Ozanam learning centre in Woolloomooloo on Thursday. It was the first day of a weekly four-hour clinic for the local community ... “If there’s community transmission, our population will be the people who will die or will be very sick,” Julie Smith, manager of Matthew Talbot’s healthcare clinic, said.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/if-there-s-community-transmi…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Homelessness.Property Unpacked podcast: Can rent-to-buy work?
Hailey Coules Domain (No paywall)Getting into the property market at the moment is feeling near impossible for a lot of Australians, plus it’s causing some buyers to rush their purchase and nab whatever they can, before they know if they even like the neighbourhood. One option that’s emerged is “rent with the option to buy” – certainly different to how the market usually works.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/property-unpacked-podcast-does-re…
# Video Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.