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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Shelter NSW April 2021 News
(No paywall)Check out the latest housing news from Shelter NSW:
Waterloo Estate Proposal takes a new turn
Shelter NSW's response to the 'Design and Place SEPP' (Explanation of Intended Effect)
Renting in NSW – the perfect storm of unemployment, reduced income support and accrued rental debts
Sign the 'Everybody's Home' petition
Shelter NSW welcomes reform to boarding house planning laws
Save the date - next members meeting
Social Housing win in Glebe
Politics in the Pub
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-april-ebulletin?e=91e8…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform.Vital signs: to fix Australia’s housing affordability crisis, negative gearing must go
Richard Holden The Conversation (No paywall)House prices are back in the news, and out of control. ... Sadly, there is little new about the fact that Australia – and the largest capital cities in particular – have a serious housing affordability problem. It has been that way for at least a decade. ... Perhaps most importantly, both sides of politics need to revisit Australia’s almost unique and certainly odd system of allowing interest payments on rental properties to be offset against a person’s taxable income – that is, “negative gearing”.
https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-to-fix-australias-housin…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.IUT in Euronews: Call to turn the housing market more social as COVID hits Europe’s short stay market on Airbnb
(No paywall)Tenants’ unions are calling on European governments to follow the examples of Lisbon and Barcelona with the money from the Coronavirus relief fund. Both metropolises had suffered from Airbnb mass tourism, which made rents almost unaffordable for residents. City councils then bought buildings with Airbnb flats and converted them into social housing, says Barbara Steenbergen in a Euronews interview. (International Union of Tenants)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/iut-in-euronews-call-to-turn-the-…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.The hidden park of last resort
Mridula Amin ABC (No paywall)They were driven here in one of life’s desperate moments — now, not everyone wants to leave. ... [But] Cheryl has heard the rumours about men in suits pacing the caravan park carrying folders, talking about putting up flats — she just hopes she’s gone by then. (ABC Western Sydney)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-11/fairfield-west-hidden-car…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Affordable housing, Housing market, Personal stories.Conversion of private rented homes to social housing could help turn the tide of this crisis
Richard Best Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It is a year on from the publication of the Affordable Housing Commission’s (AHC) major report, which highlighted the damaging social and economic effects of the switch from social housing to private renting. The coronavirus pandemic has illuminated and underlined the problem. The AHC ... spelled out how affordability had been impacted by the halving of social housing and the doubling of private renting. This tenure shift has increased poverty and inequality because millions more households can only access housing that costs a huge proportion of their incomes. ccording to the AHC, more than two million households in the private rented sector (PRS) are under housing stress. And the households devoting 40% or more of their incomes to rent – the group at highest risk – are predominantly private renters.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/conversion-of-pr…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.We need to put nurses back in nursing homes
Omar Khorshid The Guardian (No paywall)Despite the best efforts of hard-working GPs, nurses and specialists, our broken aged care system suffers from a critical deficit of healthcare in our nursing homes, care that our older Australians deserve. It is time we stopped viewing aged care as long-term accommodation for older people and accepted that aged care is healthcare, and put doctors back into aged care and nurses back into nursing homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/09/we-need-to…
# Australia, Health, Housing market, Older people.Housing affordability is a problem. Here’s why super-for-housing isn’t a solution
Brendan Coates and Will Mackey The Conversation (No paywall)The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. ... Wilson and co. are right in their diagnosis: Australia has a housing affordability problem. But they are wrong in their prescription: their proposal could actually make housing less affordable. There are several much-better ways to revive the great Australian dream for young Australians.
https://theconversation.com/housing-affordability-is-a-problem-h…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Social housing tenants enjoy Tasmania’s first community microgrid with solar and Tesla batteries
Sophie Vorrath (No paywall)Tasmania’s first community microgrid, which has combined 25.6kW of solar PV and 54kWh of Tesla battery storage, is successfully powering a group of social housing tenants at the edge of the state’s grid on the Tasman Peninsula.
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/social-housing-tenants-enjoy-ta…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Utilities water energy internet.