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
A lesson for investors: Real change involves the loss of power
Wendy Williams Pro bono Australia (No paywall)Anand Giridharadas poses a challenge to responsible investors to think about their power and what they’re really doing to achieve systemic change. There is no win-win when it comes to social change, says best-selling author Anand Giridharadas. The former McKinsey consultant-turned New York Times columnist, was speaking at RI Australia 2021, in a session addressing the question of how investors can use their power to address structural inequality. ... It comes back to the idea of power. Who has it, and whether they are really willing to give it up, without a fight.
https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/05/a-lesson-for-invest…
# Must read Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.Soaring housing costs are pushing retirees into areas where disaster risks are high
Lois Towart The Conversation (No paywall)The impacts of a closed border and recent floods have highlighted the challenges facing older Australians who live permanently in caravan parks and manufactured home estates. These properties have long provided affordable housing for retirees, particularly those who rely on the age pension and have limited assets or housing equity. Residents typically own their caravan or mobile home and pay a regular site rental. Two trends are emerging as problems for these residents ... [Read on]
https://theconversation.com/soaring-housing-costs-are-pushing-re…
# Research alert NSW, Land lease communities, Climate change, Older people, Short-term holiday letting.Albanese’s $10bn pledge pushes housing needs back into the limelight
Hal Pawson The Conversation (No paywall)Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s budget reply speech last night highlighted Australia’s huge unnmet need for social and affordable housing. It’s once again shaping up as a major election issue. Labor is proposing a A$10 billion program to build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years. The immediate backdrop for the pledge is a post-COVID house price boom, and a continuing dearth of Commonwealth investment in new non-market housing. That is, rentals affordable to low-income Australians and provided by government agencies or non-profit community housing organisations. Amid the many new spending plans revealed in Tuesday’s budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg maintained the government’s resistance to an ever-wider coalition of voices calling for social housing stimulus.
https://theconversation.com/albaneses-10bn-pledge-pushes-housing…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market.Labor leader Anthony Albanese promises 20,000 social housing properties in budget reply speech
Jade Macmillan ABC (No paywall)Tens of thousands of social and affordable housing properties would be built as part of a $10 billion housing future fund promised by the federal opposition. Labor leader Anthony Albanese used his budget reply speech to pledge a Housing Australia Future Fund to deliver 20,000 social housing properties in its first five years. Four thousand of the homes would be allocated to women and children who are escaping family and domestic violence and to older women who are at risk of homelessness.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/anthony-albanese-labor-bu…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Falling through the gaps - older women and housing
(No paywall)Fiona and Shane talk to Dee, an older woman living outside a major city in Victoria who is in housing stress. She is ineligible for public housing but does not have enough savings to purchase a home, and is falling through the gaps of a system that has very few affordable housing options. Many older women find themselves in this situation and we are referring to this group as "the missing middle", although Dee does not use that term. She tells us about her housing situation, and what she would like the government to do about it. (3CP Community Radio)
https://www.3cr.org.au/haag/episode-202104281730/falling-through…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Older people, Women.Housing and the 2021 Budget
Peter Phibbs Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The 2021 Budget provided little encouragement for Australians in housing needs but provided the predictable range of homeownership programs that will help pump up demand and prices. ... As Adrian Pisarski from National Shelter says: “It will put ownership further out of reach for the many while benefitting the few.” The focus is very much on the demand side of the equation and does little to help increase the supply of affordable housing stock.
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership.Anthony Albanese pledges $10bn social housing fund in Labor’s federal budget reply
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)Anthony Albanese will establish a new $10bn social housing fund to build 30,000 affordable homes for vulnerable Australians and frontline workers if Labor wins the next federal election, as he promises to “deliver for working families” as prime minister.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/13/anthony-a…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Older people, Women.‘It feels gross’: ad for Sydney’s ‘luxury’ Sirius building criticised as insult to former social housing tenants
Naaman Zhou The Guardian (No paywall)A glossy newspaper ad selling “reimagined” luxury apartments in Sydney’s iconic Sirius Building has been condemned as tone-deaf and “gross” for implying the previous public housing tenants did not deserve to live near Sydney Harbour. The Sirius building was built in the 1970s to provide social housing for low-income residents of Sydney’s The Rocks district. The Berejiklian government sold it to private developers in 2019 for $150m as property prices in the harbourside location skyrocketed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/15/it-feels-…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.