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
This view of the Eiffel Tower for $1000 a month: How Paris is solving its housing crisis
Thomas Fuller The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)The two-bedroom penthouse comes with sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower and just about every other monument across the Paris skyline. The rent, at €600 ($1000) a month, is a steal. Marine Vallery-Radot, 51, the apartment’s tenant, said she cried when she got the call last northern summer that hers was among 253 lower-income families chosen for a spot in the l’Îlot Saint-Germain, a new public-housing complex a short walk from the Musée d’Orsay, the National Assembly and Napoleon’s tomb. “We were very lucky to get this place,” said the single mother who lives here with her 12-year-old son, as she gazed out of bedroom windows overlooking the Latin Quarter. “This is what I see when I wake up.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/this-view-of-the-eiffel-towe…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent.A generation of renters is staring down poverty in retirement unless something drastic changes
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)It's a disturbing statistic: half of all people renting in retirement are living in poverty. That's according to research from the Grattan Institute and the Australian National University. Why would that be the case? It's pretty simple: the age pension assumes home ownership. So, if you add on even the cheapest rent, you need extra regular income to fund it. That's where superannuation comes in. Again we hit a problem because, analysts say, assuming many of us live to a ripe old age, renters will need a nest egg worth hundreds of thousands of dollars just to keep a roof over their head.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-16/generation-of-renters-ris…
# Must read Australia, Rent.'Barely habitable': Renters lived in sweltering homes above 30 degrees this summer, report finds
Emily McPherson 9 News (No paywall)New research has shown the suffocating conditions many Australians renters are living in during summer, with peak temperatures inside homes often rising above 30 degrees for hours each day. Tenant advocacy organisation Better Renting tracked the temperature in 109 rental homes over summer to see how far the mercury climbed above the recommended safe limit of 25 degrees. Rental homes in NSW, NT, Queensland and WA had an average indoor temperature of above 25 degrees, according to Better Renting's report, Cruel Summers, which was released today.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/barely-habitable-renters-lived…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.What’s the best way to ease rents and improve housing affordability? We modelled 4 of the government’s biggest programs
Jason Nassios, James Giesecke & Xianglong Locky Liu The Conversation (No paywall)Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ease rental stress and get more Australians into home ownership. Four of the most prominent are: first homeowner grants; shared equity schemes; first homeowner stamp duty exemptions and rent assistance. Our team at Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies has modelled the economic impact of each of them in a way that allows their outcomes to be compared.
https://theconversation.com/whats-the-best-way-to-ease-rents-and…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Eamonn is struggling to find a rental while politicians offer solutions to Tasmania’s housing crisis – but some worry it’s too late
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Each day, Eamonn Miller spends at least an hour searching for affordable rentals across greater Hobart. He calls it a game – but it’s one he knows he won’t win. “Basically, I’m on Gumtree every five minutes and [Facebook] Marketplace trying to look for somewhere more affordable to live,” says the 42-year-old artist. “It’s very difficult to find anywhere – even rooms.” Since Miller moved back to Hobart three months ago, he has already lived in three different places. Now, with his rent going up to $250 a week to live in a seven-person share house on the fringes of Hobart’s CBD, Miller is looking for a new place – again.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/16/eamonn-is…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Security and safety.Why the WA government won't outlaw 'no cause' evictions a year out from an election
Keane Bourke ABC (No paywall)A person's home is their castle, so the saying goes. Except, of course, if you're renting. It's especially true for renters in Western Australia, who live in one of only two places in the country that have not outlawed 'no grounds' evictions, or are planning to. Over the last few years, everywhere except the Northern Territory has supported the idea that a landlord should not be able to end a lease for no reason. Those laws mean evictions are only allowed in specific cases – in the ACT it includes the landlord or a close friend or family member moving into the property, if the owner is planning to sell the home, or if the tenant is threatening or abusive.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-17/wa-rental-reforms-law-sto…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.‘I’m home’: how co-operative housing could take pressure off Australia’s housing crisis
Louise Crabtree-Hayes The Conversation (No paywall)At a time when everything from abolishing negative gearing to capping rents are being suggested as ways to reduce Australia’s housing crisis, little attention has been given to housing co-operatives. A housing co-op consists of a group of people who share in the management and running of their accommodation. Applicants are have to meet certain criteria, including means testing. Once accepted, they are expected to contribute according to their capacity and ability.
https://theconversation.com/im-home-how-co-operative-housing-cou…
# Australia, .Victoria under pressure to mandate reporting of homelessness deaths
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)A former housing minister and a supreme court judge have joined the chief executives of 23 homelessness agencies to call for reforms mandating the reporting of homelessness deaths. Last month a Guardian Australia investigation revealed that Australians experiencing homelessness were dying at an average age of 44, a shocking life expectancy gap driven by violence, treatable illness and systemic failures across the housing, health and justice sectors. The revelations have prompted a nationwide push for mandatory reporting of homelessness deaths to the coroner, a reform that would go some way in ending their invisibility.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/20/victoria-…
# Hot topic Australia, .