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
Auditor says public housing growth and renewal program will decrease supply in real terms, limit housing choice
Claire Fenwicke Riotact (No paywall)A new report examining a program designed to grow and improve public housing stock has found it won’t deliver more homes in real terms and could restrict supply in the future. The Auditor-General looked into the ACT Government’s Growing and Renewing Public Housing Program, an eight-year, $860 million program designed to deliver 1400 new public housing homes in the Territory through new builds and redevelopment of older stock. The original program was over five years at a cost of $600 million. The audit examined the management of the program and found that while it will result in a net increase of 400 public housing homes by 2027 (compared to 2019); in real terms, available housing stock will not grow.
https://the-riotact.com/auditor-says-public-housing-growth-and-r…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Labor pours $1bn into domestic violence crisis housing and doubles homelessness funding
Josh Butler The Guardian (No paywall)The Albanese government will put an extra $1bn towards crisis accommodation for women and children leaving domestic violence, as part of a multi-billion-dollar housing and homelessness package agreed at national cabinet on Friday. The commonwealth will double its funding for homelessness under the $9.3bn national agreement, while the states will get another $1bn to help speed up construction on infrastructure to support new housing. Separately the federal government will also adjust policy settings around international students in a bid to ease housing shortages, with plans to put new caps on student numbers, require universities to build more campus accommodation and further crackdown on sub-standard education providers or agents.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/11/l…
# Hot topic Australia, .The unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza hasn’t been seen since World War II, the UN says
Edith M. Lederer AP News (No paywall)UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world hasn’t seen anything like the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II, and it would take at least until 2040 to restore the homes devastated in Israel’s bombing and ground offensive if the conflict ended today, the United Nations reported Thursday. The U.N. assessment said the social and economic impact of the war launched after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 has been increasing “in an exponential manner.” It called the level of casualties – 5% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population -- “unprecedented” in such a short time. By mid-April, it said, over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed and more than 80,000 injured. About 7,000 others remain missing, most believed to be buried under the rubble.
https://apnews.com/article/un-report-gaza-destruction-housing-ec…
# Must read, History International, Security and safety.Why fraudsters may be partly behind your high rent (and other problems at home)
Medora Lee USA Today (No paywall)Inflation, undersupply, high demand and exorbitant home prices are often reasons cited for why rents are high. But there’s another few people talk about, rampant fraud. Since the pandemic, rental fraud has exploded nationwide. Nearly all respondents (93.3%) to a survey of members of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and the National Apartment Association (NAA) representing 75 leading apartment owners, developers and managers, reported experiencing fraud in the past twelve months, according to the NMHC poll taken between November and January. The fraud occurs when people use false identities to rent an apartment under false pretenses or for criminal purposes, owners and property managers say.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2024/05/05/…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Debunking myths about community housing: What governments and the public should know
Yushu Zhu, Hanan Ali, Meg Holden, Natasha Mhuriro The Conversation (No paywall)Canada’s Housing Plan is pledging an ambitious multilateral approach to build more housing, faster and cheaper, for diverse groups. It includes noteworthy new funding programs and policies to preserve and expand community housing, including social, non-profit and co-operative housing. After decades of homeowner-centred policies, the new Tenant Protection Fund and Renters’ Bill of Rights commit more protections for tenants from excessive rent increases, forced evictions and other threats to their tenancies.
https://theconversation.com/debunking-myths-about-community-hous…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent.Cap rent rises in England and Wales, Labour-commissioned report says
Aletha Adu The Guardian (No paywall)Rent rises should be capped for millions of people struggling to afford soaring rates, according to a landmark report commissioned by Labour. The leaked proposals recommend a swathe of measures that give breathing room to renters buckling under the cost of living. The report will put pressure on Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, to do more for renters after he promised to tackle England’s housing crisis if elected as prime minister, in part with a massive programme of housebuilding for social rent. The stabilisation model proposed by the report’s author, Stephen Cowan, suggests a “double lock” for those renewing their tenancies. This would guarantee that any rise is capped at either consumer price inflation or local wage growth – whichever is lower – across England and Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/13/cap-rent…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Aged Kiwis ‘only just surviving’ as they go ‘flatting’ again to make ends meet
Annemarie Quill Stuff (No paywall)Ageing New Zealanders are heading into “the eye of the storm” which the Government “cannot afford to ignore”, say experts, as spiralling costs swallow up Super, with calls for it to be increased at 80.
86-year-old Palmerston North man Rusty Harris says he wouldn’t call it “living” on Super.
“Surviving. Only just, with big sacrifices. Not talking luxuries, but basics - eating and having somewhere to live.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350266078/aged-kiwis-only-just-s…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.Metropolis Apartments: Auckland tenant awarded $2000 after attempt to evict him ruled unlawful
NZ Herald NZ Herald (No paywall)A tenant accused of drug use says he felt forced from a swanky Auckland apartment building, despite methamphetamine testing revealing no presence of the drug. Now the property manager who, according to a Tenancy Tribunal decision, felt pressured by the Metropolis apartments’ body corporate to evict the tenant, has been ordered to pay $2000 in damages. But Metropolis has fired back in a statement saying the body corporate wasn’t aware of the tribunal case and denied pressuring the landlord or tenant.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tenant-unlawfully-evicted-from-met…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.