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
Big shake-up to state's rental law explained
Effie Zahos 9 News (No paywall)Today finance expert Effie Zahos broke down the new rules around pets in apartments.
https://9now.nine.com.au/today/videos/latest/big-shake-up-to-sta…
# Video NSW, Rent, Strata.What if housing never becomes affordable?
ABC (No paywall)Everyone knows Australian house prices are completely bananas, but understanding why stumps even the experts. So will the current trends continue? And if so, where does that leave renters? Today on The Signal, we ask why our housing market is so weird, and explore one counterintuitive idea about how to improve it. Featured: Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Business and Economy Editor, The Conversation; and Co-Presenter, 'The Economists', ABC Radio National
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Sadiq Khan to expand Right to Buy-back fund to house Afghan refugees
Jack Simpson Inside Housing (Paywall)The mayor of London has set out plans to extend his Right to Buy-back fund to secure properties for families resettling in the capital after fleeing Afghanistan. ... Mr Khan also said housing associations should apply for funding for new homes that can be delivered at pace. London, as well as a number of local authorities, have agreed to house those fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban retook the country two weeks ago. The UK has agreed to take 20,000 refugees as part of a five-year settlement plan, with 5,000 expected to arrive this year.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-to-expand-right-…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness, International, Local Government, Race and ethnicity.Covid homeless scheme not leading to permanent accommodation, warns charity
Jonathan Blake & Brian Wheeler & Jennifer Scott BBC (No paywall)Fewer than one in four homeless people housed by the government's Everyone In scheme have moved into permanent accommodation, according to figures seen by the BBC. The initiative provided over 37,000 rough sleepers with a place to stay during the pandemic. But housing charity Shelter warned many were still in temporary homes or may even be back on the streets. ... [Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in England] showed more than three quarters of those initially accommodated, around 29,000 people, were in emergency or temporary accommodation, had reconnected with friends or family, or were likely to have returned to the streets. The charity warned the gains from the "watershed" scheme were at risk of being "squandered" if the government - which has pledged to end rough sleeping by the next general election - does not ensure accommodation becomes permanent.
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Local Government.Overseas property bargains: Italian country homes selling for $1.50
Hailey Coules Domain (No paywall)If you dream of a more drastic move than a local sea or tree-change and want to call Italy home sweet Rome, this could be the solution for you. According to CNN, historic homes in the town of Maenza are set to hit the market for just one euro. Yep, one euro – that’s about $1.60 Australian. Spend the equivalent of a double-shot latte and buy three. Maenza is located just under an hour and a half from Rome, and it is expected that there will be around 100 houses up for grabs.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/a-slice-of-history-italian-countr…
# Australia, Heritage listings, Housing market, International.Apparent Humanity Hater The Supreme Court Lifts the Eviction Moratorium
Harron Walker (No paywall)The Supreme Court has struck down the moratorium on evictions that the Biden administration put in place a few weeks ago. In a divided ruling neatly split along party lines, the conservative-majority court lifted the eviction moratorium on the grounds that it did not come into being through legislative action, Bloomberg reports. The six rightwing justices also took issue with the federal law invoked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to impose the moratorium, which, like its predecessors, was intended to address the economic recession and mass layoffs produced by the coronavirus pandemic as well as to curb the spread of covid-19 itself. “Congress was on notice that a further extension [of the previous eviction moratorium, which expired on July 31,] would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” reads the Supreme Court’s unsigned eight-page opinion, per CNN. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.” Stephen Breyer dissented ... “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” he wrote, per Bloomberg. “That figure is the highest it has been since at least last winter.” (Jezebel)
https://jezebel.com/apparent-humanity-hater-the-supreme-court-li…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Brisbane community gardeners rally against proposed housing development, 'gentrification' of city suburb
Edwina Seselja ABC (No paywall)A West End community garden group brandished pitchforks, rakes and placards in a peaceful march through the inner Brisbane suburb to protest a development proposal that would encroach on the state-owned veggie patch and see the existing housing on the adjoining property demolished. ... Wicks said the protest was about more than the garden and was part of an effort to resist "mass gentrification" in the suburb at a time where the cost of housing was rising. "The reason we are resisting this development is because they are going to be demolishing really affordable apartments and replacing them with luxury apartments that will house less people," they said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/brisbane-community-garden…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.San Francisco luxury tower still sinking even as engineers work on $100m fix
Dani Anguiano The Guardian (No paywall)San Francisco’s notorious sinking luxury high-rise is still sinking, even amid a $100m project designed to fix the issue. Work to reinforce the foundation of Millennium tower in the city’s downtown came to a halt this week, after engineers found the building had sunk 1in in the months since work began. Engineers were working on reinforcing the foundation of the tower to prevent additional tilting and sinking. The 58-story tower, the tallest residential building in San Francisco, has drawn joking comparisons to the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, by 2014, it had sunk 18in and was leaning 14in to the west.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/san-francisco-mi…
# International, Strata, Minimum habitability standards.