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
Social housing: Labor demands federal intervention after report warns of 200,000 dwelling shortfall in a decade
Finn McHugh Canberra Times (No paywall)Labor is demanding federal government intervention after a warning Australia faces a ticking timebomb on social housing. Despite predictions of a crash at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, data this month revealed low and middle income earners were being locked out of the property market by skyrocketing house prices. And a new report from Compass Housing Services has predicted Australia will face a shortfall of nearly 200,000 social housing properties by 2031, calling for "urgent and significant intervention" from the Commonwealth. The report, released on Monday, warned the states and territories were failing to keep up with demand, and only planned a combined 66,125 new dwellings over the next decade. It found that would still exclude 100,000 families on current waiting lists, a number rising to 196,000 when an expected population increase was factored in. You will find a media release from Compass Housing Services and a link to the full report at: [https://www.compasshousing.org/news]
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7408155/stark-warning-ove…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market.‘I tell them, it didn’t kill me’: Vaccination hub for homeless opens
Chloe Booker and Craig Butt The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last year Jimmy Rose, a support worker for the homeless, had more than 30 COVID-19 tests to help calm the fears of rough sleepers needing to be tested for the virus. The 50-year-old, who once slept on the streets himself, is now helping encourage the City of Melbourne’s homeless people to get vaccinated at a centre opening at Melbourne Town Hall on Wednesday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/i-tell-them-it-didn-t-k…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Homelessness.Even with the eviction moratorium, landlords continued to find ways to kick renters out
Matthew Fowle and Rachel Fyall The Conversation (No paywall)Millions of renters in the U.S. lost a key protection keeping them in their homes on Aug. 26, 2021, with a Supreme Court ruling ending a national moratorium on eviction. The federal stay on evictions was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic to protect renters falling behind on monthly payments and therefore in danger of needing to stay at homeless shelters or with friends or relatives. This pandemic response was designed to keep tenants in their housing, prevent overcrowding in shelters and homes, and reduce the spread of COVID-19. ... we studied the housing experiences of low-income renters during the coronavirus pandemic. Our research found that even when a ban on evictions was in place, landlords still had ways to force, or at least encourage, renters to leave. Indeed, these so-called “informal evictions” – in which landlords harass tenants out of their homes – may even have increased as a result of the stay on evictions.
https://theconversation.com/even-with-the-eviction-moratorium-la…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19.'Absolutely neglectful’: Labor says Wilcannia COVID housing too late
Cameron Gooley The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Thirty new motorhomes will open in the far western NSW community of Wilcannia so COVID-19 positive people won’t have to isolate in overcrowded housing, a move Labor says should have happened weeks ago. The homes will be on Wilcannia’s campervan site by Monday, weeks after the town recorded its first COVID-19 case. More than 60 per cent of Wilcannia’s population is Aboriginal, considered more at risk from the virus, and concerns about the ability of people to isolate in the community’s overcrowded housing have been mounting. The announcement comes days after a leaked letter from a respected local Aboriginal health organisation raised the alarm over the “chaotic” government response to an unfolding “humanitarian crisis” in Wilcannia. ... Labor has urged the state government to prepare similar accommodation options for other remote communities, ready to be rolled out as soon as they begin to record cases. It is also urging the Coalition to invest more money in remote housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/absolutely-neglectful-labor-…
# Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Social housing in New South Wales - Contempoary Analysis
Emma Barnes, Thomas Writer and Chris Hartley (No paywall)In advance of the June 2021 NSW Budget, the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW commissioned the Centre for Social Impact at the University of NSW to examine the NSW Government’s commitments to develop additional social housing. The report demonstrates that, though there are more than 51,000 applicants for social housing at present, NSW Government commitments between 2016 and 2026 amount to just 9,386 additional dwellings. It also finds that expenditure on social housing per capita in NSW declined between 2017-18 and 2019-20 and that social housing as a proportion of the total housing stock has declined from 5% in 2012 to 4.7% in 2020. (St Vincent de Paul Society) Read the full report at: [https://www.csi.edu.au/research/project/social-housing-in-new-south-wales/]
https://www.csi.edu.au/research/project/social-housing-in-new-so…
# Research alert NSW, Public and community housing, Homelessness, State Government.Thirty motorhomes for Wilcannia to help residents isolate during COVID outbreak
Callum Marshall, Bill Ormonde and Andrew Schmidt ABC (No paywall)Thirty motorhomes will be set up in Wilcannia in far-west New South Wales to help the community safely isolate during its frightening COVID outbreak. About 10 per cent of the population has now tested positive for COVID, with 77 cases recorded in the town. ... The temporary accommodation option is planned to be operational from September 6 and will be located at the council-owned campervan site in Wilcannia. Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the site had access to power, water and waste disposal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-01/wilcannia-covid-outbreak-…
# Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Social housing tenant’s cry for help: Get me out of this ‘hellhole’ flat
Anna Tims The Guardian (No paywall)Constance Baker feels she takes her life into her hands when she uses her bathroom. In June, following three years’ of leaks, the ceiling collapsed, showering the units with debris. Now, when she uses the lavatory, or takes a bath, she has to protect herself from water drizzling from the flat above. The Kent flat is owned and managed by London & Quadrant (L&Q), one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and she says that years of unresolved damp and defects have led her to contemplate suicide. The 60-year-old, who is bipolar, was moved to the property in 2018 after leaving a women’s refuge, also run by L&Q, and claims it was damp from the outset. [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/29/social-housing-ten…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Mould.Pets in apartments: Owners can be slugged with costs and restrictions
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)While pet lovers can no longer be banned from bringing their dog or cat into their apartment building to live, they can still be slugged as much as $300 for the privilege, a NSW tribunal has ruled. They can also be forbidden from stopping to pick up their mail while in the lobby with their pet and from having a friend with a pet visit them – unless they’ve already applied for, and been given, permission by their owners corporation. The landmark judgment by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) means that other apartment buildings throughout the state will be free to impose similar strict conditions on pet owners.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/pets-in-apartments-can-be-slugged…
# Legal significance NSW, Strata.