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
Lockdown could force Aussies on Centrelink into homelessness: Warnings
Lucy Dean (No paywall)Nearly 1 million low-income people in lockdowns are ineligible for the $600 disaster payments, and it’s a problem that could force many into homelessness, welfare advocates are warning. ... A survey carried out by ACOSS found that people were being forced to choose whether to spend their money on food, rent or medicine. Half of the survey respondents said they were concerned they would not be able to afford their housing and would be forced into homelessness. (yahoo!finance)
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/covid-19-disaster-payment-cent…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Homelessness.Inside the Quest to Distribute Billions in Rental Assistance Before Eviction Moratoriums Expire
Abby Vesoulis (No paywall)From the United States ... Katrina Dennis, 51, was so sure she would be evicted from her Phoenix, Arizona rental home that she had already started packing to move in with family. The pandemic cost Dennis her airline customer relations job in June 2020, and while she has since found temporary work in the travel industry, the gig hasn’t paid enough to make up for the months she was unemployed. She still owed $6,000 in rent. “Even if you fall behind by one month,” she says, “it’s just so hard to catch up.” But in mid-July, she received a text message that changed everything: her application for emergency rental assistance had been approved. The notice came just in time. The national eviction moratorium—established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in September 2020 and extended four times—is slated to end on July 31. At that point, the eviction proceedings Dennis’ landlord had already initiated would have been able to move forward. But now that her landlord knows she will be able to pay, Dennis can stay in the apartment, at least through the end of her lease. “To take that big expense off of my shoulders, it’s such a relief,” she says. (yahoo!news)
https://news.yahoo.com/inside-quest-distribute-billions-rental-1…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Leaving rehab: enhancing transitions into stable housing
Cameron Duff, Nicholas Hill, Hazel Blunden, kylie valentine, Sean Randall, Rosanna Scutella and Guy Johnson AHURI (No paywall)This research presents policy and practice recommendations to enhance the coordination of housing, health and social care supports for individuals leaving residential treatment for mental health or substance use problems. People who experience contact with a support service, particularly younger individuals with complex health, housing and social care needs, tend also to experience disrupted housing trajectories. This relationship is bidirectional, in that frequency of service contact is an indication of service demand and the complexity of individual’s health care needs. This research strongly endorses the ‘housing first’ model, which emphasises the centrality of stable housing, as a guide to enhance the coordination and integration of diverse housing, health and social care supports for individuals transitioning out of residential treatment settings.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKKWxXJLnJgwpvS…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Health, Homelessness, Young people.Watchdog orders more defects to be fixed in Sydney’s Opal Tower
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The builder and developer of Sydney’s Opal Tower have been ordered to fix defects in the 36-storey building more than two years after residents were forced to evacuate due to cracking. The state’s building watchdog handed formal orders to construction firm Icon and a company linked to developer Ecove on Thursday night due to concerns about incorrectly fitted aluminum shades on the tower’s facade, and defects related to fire-safety in the lobby areas. The orders to rectify the “serious defects” were also issued to the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, which owns the land on which the tower is built.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/watchdog-orders-more-defects…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Calls to overhaul solar panel scheme for renters amid slow take-up
Annika Smethurst The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Environment groups and the state’s peak social and community sector body are calling on landlords to pick up the bill for solar panel installation on rental properties, amid a slow take-up of a government scheme. Under the 2018 Victorian government program, eligible landlords can apply for a 50 per cent rebate of up to $1850 for the installation of solar panels as well as an interest-free loan to cover the upfront cost. That loan is then repaid by the landlord or split with the tenant who contributes up to 50 per cent of the monthly repayment at a maximum cost of $19.27 a month. The program is part of Victoria’s Solar Homes Program, which is offering 650,000 solar panel rebates to owner-occupiers and 50,000 to rental properties over 10 years to lower electricity bills and reduce carbon emissions.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/calls-to-overhaul-solar…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Landlords and agents, State Government.There is a little-known two-tier system within social housing. Thousands of tenants are paying the price
Ethan Te Ora (No paywall)Debbie Port is less equal than other social housing tenants. The 45-year-old feels that injustice deep in her bones, like she does the penetrating cold at her flat. She feels the sting each week, in her bank account, when the rent comes out. And she is far from alone in that predicament: there are thousands of people in social housing, potentially more than 10,000, on the wrong side of an arbitrary policy line. n 2013, the National government passed the Social Housing Reform Act, rejigging who was eligible to receive the income-related rental subsidy, otherwise known as the IRRS. The current Labour Government, since taking power in 2017, has kept those settings in place. Read on ... (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/our-truth/125681860/there-is-a…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent.Home ownership plans ‘indefinitely shelved’ as soaring prices lock out young buyers
Jenny Noyes and Maeve McGregor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney couple Nina Betts and Harry Malcolm haven’t completely given up on the dream of owning their own piece of property somewhere in Australia. But their plans to buy have been put on ice since the pandemic hit and instead of falling, house prices everywhere went skywards. ... As for remaining in Sydney long term, they both agree it’s “not financially tenable” if they want to raise a family.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/home-ownership-plans-indefinitel…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.Boris Johnson’s planning reforms could turn southern England into urban sprawl
Simon Jenkins The Guardian (No paywall)The British government is trapped again by the picaresque politics of Boris Johnson. When the pandemic has subsided, the legacy of 2021 could yet be something more long-lasting – the permanent scarring of the landscape, courtesy of the 2019 parliament. ... At the root lies Johnson’s perfectly commendable ambition to “level up” the north and south. Britain has one of the most regionally divided economies in the developed world, with parts of northern England poorer than the regions that used to make up East Germany. Johnson rightly wants to divert wealth, talent, investment and productivity in that direction, but he has no clue what this means.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/25/boris-john…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.