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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
The French solution for Sydney’s apartment blocks
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Housing blocks from the 1960s and ’70s, like Sydney’s Waterloo Estate, could be extended and upgraded to last another 50 years at a third of the cost of a knockdown-rebuild, say Pritzker Prize-winning architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal.
And it can be done without moving tenants out, the French architects said this week during a visit to Sydney University.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-french-solution-for-sydn…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development, State Government.Walgett Aboriginal elders demand housing help 18 months after men's homeless shelter demolished
Kenji Sato ABC (No paywall)Aboriginal elders in Walgett are demanding more housing support from the state government more than a year after the town's only men's shelter was demolished.
The NSW government bulldozed Namoi House in January last year to make way for domestic violence units, but construction ground to a halt due to a budget blowout.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-17/walgett-shelter-demolishe…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, State Government.Elderly residents face rental battle after being told to vacate Shoal Bay aged care homes
Romy Stephens ABC (No paywall)A pair of elderly men are battling soaring rents in their search for somewhere to live, after being told to vacate their homes in less than three months.
Gary Buckingham and Donald Williams, who live at the Harbourside Haven Gardens Residential Aged Care Home at Shoal Bay, are among five men who have been told to vacate the facility by October 13.
The men are residential tenants and do not receive high care.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-02/aged-care-residents-face-…
# NSW, Eviction, No-grounds evictions, Older people.Own Goal? Thinking about the impact of the FIFA Women’s Cup on rental housing
Rita Wilkinson (No paywall)FIFA Downunder is just a day away as the 2023 Women’s World Cup Finals are played across nine cities in Australia and New Zealand over July and August. Sydney will host one of two opening games, and will host five final games including THE final The FIFA World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in Australia since the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It is truly a mega-event, and a really exciting opportunity to showcase football in Australia.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/own-goal-thinking-about-impact-f…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Housing affordability, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Pensioners face eviction from caravan park after developer purchase
A Current Affair Staff A Current Affair (No paywall)A group of Australian pensioners are fighting to keep their homes at a New South Wales caravan park after a property developer purchased the land six years ago and has since tried to evict them from their houses.
Woronora Village Tourist Park residents Allan Graham, Ray, Alice and Kenny have called the riverside property, which offers campsites and cabins in Sydney's south, their home for 30 years.
The residents all own their homes but lease the land in the flood-prone park.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/nsw-pensioners-face-ev…
# NSW, Eviction, Land lease communities, Older people.Australian residential tenancies law reform: a new agenda for 2023 and beyond
Chris Martin Parity (No paywall)On 28 April 2023, Australian governments, meeting as the National Cabinet, agreed to develop a new law reform agenda to ‘strengthen renters’ rights across the country’. Housing ministers are now tasked with drafting proposals to take back to National Cabinet in the latter half of the year.
Although no details have yet been produced, the announcement of the national reform agenda is remarkable for two reasons.
https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2023/08/australian-re…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, State Government.Who should pay to fix the housing crisis?
Michele Weekes ABC (No paywall)The CFMEU says a tax on 'super profits' could help us build enough social and affordable homes to fix the housing crisis.
Meanwhile, the federal government is trying to pass legislation that would see individual taxpayers contributing.
Should corporate entities be doing more?
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/who-sh…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Federal Government, Tax.The ongoing implications of COVID-19 for homelessness responses
Chris Hartley Centre for Social Impact (No paywall)On May 5th, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19, though still prevalent, is no longer considered a global emergency. public health emergency of international concern. This declaration reflects that for many Australians COVID-19 is in fact over. Over time, media coverage of COVID has diminished, and state and territory governments have ceased providing daily updates on cases and deaths. Moreover, a significant portion of the population has already experienced and recovered from COVID-19.
https://www.csi.edu.au/news/the-ongoing-implications-of-covid-19…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.