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
‘This is going to be devastating’: North shore begins its resistance to housing policy
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)North shore residents and representatives have launched a campaign of resistance against the state government’s plans to increase housing density, accusing Premier Chris Minns of “trying to cause trouble” by rushing through changes. At a special community meeting on Wednesday night, senior Ku-ring-gai Council officers showed residents photographs of apartment blocks in Meadowbank and Burwood, and warned that was the north shore’s future under the government’s policies.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-is-going-to-be-devastat…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Cost of negative gearing and other rental deductions soaring, Australian Treasury data reveals
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)Concessions for superannuation cost the federal budget almost $50bn a year while rental deductions, much of them for negative gearing, have jumped by more than half in three years, the annual Treasury summary of tax expenditures shows.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/cost-of-n…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent.How Albanese could tweak negative gearing to save money and build more new homes
Peter Martin ABC (No paywall)There are two things the prime minister needs to get into his head about tax. One is that saying he won't make any further changes no longer works. The other is that negative gearing doesn't do much to get people into homes. Anthony Albanese seemed to have taken the first point on board when he spoke to Insiders on Sunday.
Rather than promising flat out not to change the rules around negative gearing, he merely said he was "supportive of the current rules, we have not considered changes to them".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-07/albanese-tax-changes-nega…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .Kimberley Community Legal Services turns away vulnerable clients as funding falls short
Rosanne Maloney ABC (No paywall)One of northern Western Australia's only community legal centres has been forced to close its doors to hundreds of clients as a lack of resources continues to hinder its ability to meet community demand. Kimberley Community Legal Services (KCLS) covers the Kimberley towns of Kununurra and Broome, with eight lawyers servicing an area the size of Victoria. Chief executive Christine Robinson said the not-for-profit organisation supported some of the country's most vulnerable people — mostly Indigenous clients with highly complex needs.
Ms Robinson said the struggle to meet demand was the most acute she had seen in her 30-year career.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-06/kimberley-community-legal…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Rent.Homeless Australians are dying at age 44 on average in hidden crisis
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of Australians experiencing homelessness are dying more than 30 years prematurely in a nationwide crisis fuelled by despair, critical housing shortages, a breakdown in health provision, violence on the streets and failures of the justice system.
A 12-month Guardian Australia investigation identifying and examining more than 600 cases has found people experiencing homelessness are dying at an average age of 44, a shocking life expectancy gap that experts say is worse than any other disadvantaged group in the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/05/homeless-…
# Must read Australia, Discrimination, Security and safety.‘Nowhere else to go’: protesters rally in support of Brisbane woman refusing to leave rental home of 22 years
Eden Gillespie The Guardian (No paywall)Stephanie Cridland has lived in the same Brisbane rental property for more than 20 years. The 51-year-old lives with her dog and pet fish in an old Queenslander, but after receiving notice to leave last year she is concerned she’ll end up on the street. Cridland’s dilemma prompted Greens candidate for Brisbane mayor Jonathan Sriranganathan on Tuesday to organise a snap anti-eviction protest outside Cridland’s rental. It is one of several protests organised by the party in recent years after a rental crisis.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/07/stephanie…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .Residents in Sunshine Coast social housing with passive cooling, no air conditioning say heatwaves unbearable
Owen Jacques ABC (No paywall)As heavy rain landed on the roof of Suellyn Lott's Sunshine Coast apartment — where the temperature inside was 30 degrees Celsius on Monday afternoon — the 68-year-old was relieved. Her social housing in Beerwah is not air conditioned, and she said it had become intolerable over summer. Earlier that day, Ms Lott sat in her car in the driveway so she could cool down away from her hot house.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-02/no-aircon-in-social-housi…
# Hot topic, Video Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Vacated Fitzroy tenants see their former apartments relisted for hundreds of dollars more
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)A group of tenants who were forced to leave their Melbourne apartments after living in them for a year say their homes have now been relisted for $180 more a week. Last year, after 12 months of living in the new build-to-rent apartment building in Fitzroy, one-third of tenants received rent increases or notices to vacate. Now, some tenants who were served eviction notices say they are seeing the apartments relisted for hundreds of dollars more each week.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/02/melbourne…
# Hot topic Australia, .