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
Budget 2024 targets cost of living, health, aged care and tertiary students
Cat Woods Law Society Journal (No paywall)Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ third federal budget reflects many of the same priorities as last year’s budget while also addressing global geopolitical concerns through increased defence spending. The budget, released on Tuesday 14 May, has committed to spending on protective and responsive measures for women victims of male violence that critics have noted fall short of supporting frontline domestic violence services. In the lead up to Budget night, the government made clear that its main concerns are the Stage 3 tax cuts, defence and tertiary education commitments. LSJ outlines key budget facts and seeks responses from experts on their effectiveness and rationale.
https://lsj.com.au/articles/budget-2024-targets-cost-of-living-h…
# Must read, Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, .Could landlords help solve bottlenecks in the family and domestic violence space? This service thinks so
Keane Bourke ABC (No paywall)Finding a home in the current market is hard enough at the moment, but imagine doing it while escaping family and domestic violence. The national housing crisis is piling even more pressure on already struggling refuges and safe houses, with support services saying it's bottlenecking systems needed to keep women safe. But the solution, as one organisation has found, didn't need to be complex. Instead, it's been driven by people like David and Joan Motta and dozens of others like them. They've chosen to lease the apartment they originally purchased for their daughter to a domestic violence survivor and her children.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-06/landlords-renting-to-fami…
# Must read Australia, Domestic violence, Rent.Landlords warned over 'double dipping' on deductibles and other tax errors that could cost government $1.2 billion
Geraden Cann ABC (No paywall)As Australia's tax season rolls around again, the national tax office has a familiar group in its sights: landlords. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) this week revealed Australians with rental properties were one of three groups under scrutiny, after findings that nine out of 10 landlords were making mistakes on their returns. The ATO estimates a recent trend of "double dipping" on expenses and other tax return errors could be costing Australia $1.2 billion in its tax take. So why are landlords falling foul of tax return rules so often?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-11/landlords-australian-tax-…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media Australia, .Community legal centres fear possible government funding cuts will put vulnerable people at risk
Greta Stonehouse ABC (No paywall)Forbidden from working, mother of two Raffat Fatima had no money or family to help come up with a plan to keep her children safe. Instead, she turned to legal aid, and a caseworker soon became her guardian angel. "We had nowhere to go so we ended up staying in her house for a month," she said. "I could never pay her enough for all of this, such a big help". After she immigrated from Pakistan with her husband, she says he stopped her working as a mechanical engineer, and tightly controlled her movements. Then she says the violence started. School teachers tried to intervene, but Ms Fatima felt trapped, and pretended all was fine, for the sake of their children.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-10/nsw-community-legal-centr…
# Must read Australia, Domestic violence, Rent, Security and safety.Landlords hike rents nearly 50 per cent since the lows of lockdown
Jemimah Clegg The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Rents have increased at a booming rate since the lows reached during COVID-19 lockdowns, putting pressure on tenants who decided to move when housing costs were more affordable. Economists warn of the need for more housing construction to increase the supply of properties and take pressure off rents. Unit asking rental prices have soared by 48.9 per cent in Sydney from their post-March 2020 trough, and 48.6 per cent in Melbourne, Domain data shows, and have reached a weekly median of $700 and $550 respectively. The rise was even steeper in Brisbane (53.2 per cent) and Perth (71.9 per cent), while across the combined capitals, unit rents soared 46.3 per cent from March 2020 to reach a median $620 a week.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/landlords-hike-rents-nearly…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Call for governments to build more lodging homes in bid to alleviate housing crisis
Keane Bourke ABC (No paywall)Robert Andrews's life in a lodging house in Perth is a far cry from his time as a high-flying investment banker in London. When a nearly two-decade career marked by isolation, first-class flights and cocaine addiction came to an end, he started travelling around Europe with $100,000 in his back pocket. But a head injury impaired Mr Andrews's ability to plan for the future, and when the money was gone he had little more than a tent. "I was always deluding myself that somehow something would magically appear," he said. It never did, and he headed back to Perth to rebuild his life.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-08/lodging-houses-could-be-k…
# Australia, Boarders and lodgers, Rent.'I'd barely eat one meal a day': Aussies eating out of bins and skipping meals just to afford housing
9 News (No paywall)Research shows Aussies are eating out of bins and skipping meals just to afford housing as the Salvation Army warns it is facing an "unprecedented number" of people reaching out for help. The Salvation Army's major Kylie Collinson said rising inflation, successive interest rate hikes and the growing housing crisis were seeing more people struggle. "We are seeing people who actually have jobs who are saying we need help with out utility bills because our mortgages are so high," Collinson said. "It's unprecedented the number of people who are coming through our centres." The Salvos most recent survey of Australia's most vulnerable found 94 per cent of people were struggling to afford essentials like housing, groceries, medical care and utilities.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/salvation-army-aussies…
# Must read Australia, .Their housing estate was demolished. Here’s what happened to the final residents
Cher Tan The Age (Paywall)In 2020 the Walker Street public housing estate in Northcote was demolished. Most of the land – the parts that look out over the Merri Creek – was handed over to developers to be sold, with a section retained for social housing. It was a controversial decision, and one which has now been documented in a new film Things Will Be Different which follows two of the last residents to vacate. When the documentary begins, we meet Najat – a single migrant mother of four whose last name is not given – and William Gwynne. “We were campaigning for two years to try and stop the government from knocking down the estate,” Gwynne tells this masthead. “I’d only been there for three years when I got the notice.”
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/their-housing-estate-wa…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent.