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
Australia has had housing crises before: what can we learn from them?
Anne O'Brien The Guardian (No paywall)The federal government’s first major tax reform in nearly 30 years was a significant achievement that suggests we may have turned a corner on the housing crisis. It is a good time to revisit Australia’s housing history within the broader history of social policy. This is a story of public investment for economic growth as well as for the needs of citizens. The railways, telegraphs, hospitals, schools and welfare that gave Australia a reputation for a “pragmatic” rather than “doctrinaire” approach to national development are well known. But governments also invested in housing despite some powerful resistance by interest groups.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/21/australia-…
# History Australia, .‘Balcony solar’ and plug‑in systems could help cut your energy costs. But only if rules change
Nicola Willand, Alan Pears, Mike Roberts and Xiufang Li The Conversation (No paywall)Australia is a world leader when it comes to adopting rooftop solar systems. But our solar transition is leaving renters and apartment dwellers behind. According to the latest census, almost one-third of Australians rent their homes, live in apartments or are connected to private energy networks. These households are largely unable to benefit from rooftop solar. Our research shows the reasons for this include limited roof space, relatively high costs for upgrading switchboards and wiring, and long approval wait times. Landlords may also be reluctant to install solar as any energy bill savings go directly to renters.
https://theconversation.com/balcony-solar-and-plug-in-systems-co…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet.Two years into the government's social housing push, a new report says it's well behind target
SBS (No paywall)Less than four per cent of the social homes promised by the Albanese government's signature social housing fund have been delivered, two years into a five-year target period. As of May 2026, 1432 of the Housing Australia Future Fund's target of 40,000 new social and affordable homes had been delivered, the Australian National Audit Office found in a report released on Tuesday. The $10 billion fund's forecast to hit its target by mid-2029 faced "considerable uncertainty" as of June, the auditor-general found.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/two-years-government-social-…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Housing can be affordable if you change who the developer is
Mike Brown The Fifth Estate (No paywall)When selecting classical archetypes on which to model affordable housing policy, Sisyphus’s is not a good one to pick. Kate Shaw observes that governments “…cling to the delusion that the market will build into surplus until prices come down, redressing housing precarity and homelessness, and leading us out of our affordable housing crisis, hallelujah”. A recent SMH article reviewed the extent of NSW government affordable housing policy failure.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/housing-can-be-af…
# Australia, .Residents at Darwin's largest homeless shelter YiSSA plead for help to save their homes
Roxanne Fitzgerald ABC (No paywall)Hundreds of residents living at a Darwin's largest homeless shelter are pleading for help to save their homes as the process of closing the facility begins, with many fearing they will have have nowhere to go. More than 220 adults and 130 children currently living at short-stay accommodation centre YiSSA have been told they must vacate by October 11. Despite organisations on the frontline warning the Northern Territory is in a housing crisis, the NT government earlier this month announced the facility would be shut down after lease negotiations with the owner of the buildings — Ausco Modular — collapsed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-30/homeless-shelter-yissa-cl…
# Australia, .Overcrowded housing linked to Northern Territory diphtheria outbreak, researchers say
Natasha Clark National Indigenous Times (No paywall)A diphtheria outbreak has swept through the Northern Territory, infecting 131 people and likely claiming one life. Researchers say overcrowded homes and poor skin health are fuelling the spread. This marks the first return of locally transmitted, toxin-producing diphtheria to the Territory in over twenty years. Researchers recorded 97 skin infections and 34 respiratory cases between January 2025 and April 2026, according to a study in Eurosurveillance. Aboriginal people made up 95 per cent of those infected—125 out of 131 cases.
https://nit.com.au/27-07-2026/25581/overcrowded-housing-linked-t…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters.Labor conference housing focus
ABC (No paywall)Labor's national conference will today hear motions calling for the return of a National Housing Commission and a commitment to more social housing for Australia's poorest people. It comes as a new report show's the Housing Australia Future Fund has delivered more social housing, but that those efforts are about to stall.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/housing-comission/1069…
# Audio Australia, .ACT public housing residents waiting weeks for heater repairs, say Canberra Liberals
Monte Bovill ABC (No paywall)In the depths of winter in Canberra, when the temperature often dips below freezing, most locals rely on their heaters to keep their homes warm. But for Barbara Belmonte, her split system air-conditioning unit has been out of action for much of the season. "I haven't had adequate and sustainable heating in this house since the 9th of June," she said. "This has started to wear me down so much that I was in tears a few weeks ago."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/act-public-housing-reside…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.