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
Byron Council explores community land trust option for affordable housing
Paul Bibby (No paywall)Could the creation of a Community Land Trust in the Byron Shire provide desperately needed, genuinely affordable housing for locals on low incomes? This is the question that Councillors will explore at this week’s planning meeting as they continue their efforts to address what the Council is now calling the Shire’s ‘housing emergency’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2021/04/byron-council-explores-community…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Local Government, Regional NSW.‘A burden, not a celebration of history’: NSW government pushes heritage law review
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government is pushing to make it easier and less expensive to own or adapt heritage-listed buildings under the first major overhaul of the state’s heritage laws in more than two decades.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-burden-not-a-celebration-o…
# NSW, Heritage listings, Housing market.After bugs, mold, and ceiling collapse, an affordable housing complex for veterans in NE Portland will shut down
Rebecca Ellis (No paywall)From the United States ...The property was meant to provide affordable and supportive housing for formerly homeless veterans. Residents say they’ve been neglected since day one. For years, residents of Sandy Studios, a publicly-funded apartment complex in Northeast Portland for formerly homeless veterans, say their steady stream of complaints about the condition of the building went unheeded — until they became impossible to ignore. (OPB)
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/03/31/ne-portland-apartments-sa…
# International, Repairs, Affordable housing, Landlords and agents, Mould.Rental stress for NT pensioners locked out of public housing because of asset limit change
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)Ms [Frances] Czoloszynski lives in a private rental in Palmerston where she pays below-market rent to a private property owner, earns a pension and has few assets. When [she] retired at 67 last June, she took a pre-emptive step to secure government housing. But she said she was rejected because she had about $100,000 in superannuation. in January 2016 — under the former CLP government — the asset limit for new tenants was slashed from about $195,000 to $60,000. It has since risen over that period to about $70,000, but people like Ms Czoloszynski remain ineligible.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-06/nt-public-housing-asset-r…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Women.When will house prices go down?
ABC (No paywall)In recent months there's been an astonishing spike in house prices across the country. Sydney prices had the most rapid rise, up 3.7 per cent while housing values in regional areas rose 11.4 per cent over the past year. (Martin North, Principal of Digital Finance Analytics, on RN Breakfast)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/when-wil…
# Audio Australia, Housing market.First home buyer boom masks a much bigger problem
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)... the unfolding property bonanza is only likely to worsen housing inequality between the generations. The reality is the Great Australian Dream of home ownership has been slipping out of reach from more and more younger people in recent decades. It’s hard to see the recent bounce in first home buyers as much more than a blip.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/first-home-buyer-boo…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Young people.How about light, air and simplicity? Victoria’s social housing project delivers density and delight
Duncan Murphy The Fifth Estate (No paywall)The Victorian government is forging ahead with its 5.3 billion Australian dollar Big Housing Build initiative, having last week revealed the winners of the Future Homes design competition. ... Melbourne-based firm LIAN, will be the first to see its design brought to life ... LIAN’s proposal, titled Freespace, attempts to inject the advantages of a single family home into higher density residencies through innovative use of public and private space.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/how-about…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market.Woodworker John shares joy of books
(No paywall)Woodworker John Murray [and Link Housing tenant] started building street libraries when a friend asked him to build her one to help recirculate book for others to enjoy. (The Senior NSW/ACT April 2021, p 8)
https://digital-print-edition.austcommunitymedia.com.au/SNRNSW/2…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Neighbours.