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 cost of homelessness in WA’s public hospitals and how the state could save millions
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Taxpayers pay upwards of $18 million a year to treat the mental health of homeless people in Western Australia, with research showing rough sleepers spend a combined 11,500 days in hospital every year. But that cost could be drastically cut, saving millions of dollars, if rough sleepers were offered a place to call home, researchers from the University of Western Australia have found.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/the-cost-of-ho…
# Research alert Australia, Health, Homelessness.Aboriginal tenants face ‘wall of China’ to access WA housing as discrimination locks out rentals
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Natalie Garlett has a stable fly-in, fly-out job, a clean rental record, and few demands but she can’t find a home in Perth’s saturated private rental market. After getting knockback after knockback, the mother of five is sleeping in the lounge of her daughter’s tiny two-bedroom unit with her 11-year-old son. Ms Garlett, who is Aboriginal and found herself on the streets after her landlord decided to vacate the unit she was renting in Bentley, believes she is being ruled out because of her race. ... Discrimination against Indigenous people and other ethnic minorities in the private rental market has been a widespread issue, with Equal Opportunities Commissioner John Byrne conceding in 2018 little progress had been made to address the problem in the past decade. At the time, Dr Byrne said rental applications by people with Indigenous or foreign-sounding names were rejected despite them having a steady income and good references, which he attributed to landlords’ prejudices and unconscious bias.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/aboriginal-ten…
# Hot topic Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Homelessness.‘Pressures have built up’: how can New Zealand solve its social housing crisis?
Eva Corlett The Guardian (No paywall)Once a world leader in social housing, New Zealand now faces what the UN has called a “human rights crisis”. Although the government is pouring money in, the waitlist for social housing has ballooned to 23,000 – triple that of three years ago – and there are more than 4,000 children living in motels. The government has repeatedly said it is rectifying a problem it inherited from the former National government, which saw the sell-off of state housing and underinvestment in social housing. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told local media in January the government would leave “no stone unturned” to fix the problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/11/pressures-have-bui…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness.This house was too 'unhealthy' to live in, but David did. Experts say many Australians are in similar rentals
Katri Uibu ABC (No paywall)From Tasmania ... David Billett says his rental property was in such a squalid condition "a rat wouldn't live in it". But he did — for three years — until the Circular Head Council found the house in Smithton, on Tasmania's west coast, was "so unhealthy that no person can safely occupy [it]".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-12/house-rendered-so-unhealt…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Mould.Community title makes its way to Western Australia
Poppy Johston The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Western Australia now has a new type of tenure that proponents say will deliver greater housing diversity, enhanced common spaces and even open the door to shared sustainability infrastructure. Similar to a strata scheme, the newly introduced community title scheme entrusts lot owners with shared ownership and responsibility for common areas on the property. Community title schemes differ from strata schemes by allowing the subdivision of a single piece of land into up to three tiers of schemes called community titles schemes. Strata titles, by contrast, allow only one scheme to be created on a single parcel of freehold land.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/community…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Rest room: tiny Vancouver ‘micro studio’ combines bedroom and toilet
Helen Sullivan The Guardian (No paywall)From Canada ... An ad for a “micro studio” posted on Craigslist this month described the apartment – which includes new flooring, a window and a single bed, but does not include a kitchen – as “ideal for a single individual looking to live downtown at an affordable rate, and who does not need much space”. The 160-square-foot (15 sq metre) apartment’s layout means there is little differentiation between the toilet and the bedroom – they are a few steps apart, and in direct line of sight, without a door. All this for just C$680 (US$550) a month, hot water and electricity included. Pets are not allowed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/rest-room-tiny-van…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Desperate mum left out in the cold
(Paywall)Knocked back from more than 100 rentals and a single mum was forced to give up her children as she found herself one step away from living on the streets of Mount Gambier. (Adelaide Now)
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/mount-gambier/single-mu…
# Australia, Homelessness, Women.Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast rents surge to record heights: Domain Rent Report
Sarah Webb Domain (No paywall)A sea-change surge has pushed the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast rental markets to the brink of breaking with median weekly prices soaring to record heights as industry experts warn the boom that’s left some locals homeless is far from over.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/gold-coast-sunshine-coast-rents-s…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.