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
NZ ranked as 13th-most expensive country to rent a three-bedroom house - UK study
Mark Quinlivan (No paywall)New Zealand is ranked the 13th least-affordable country to rent in the world, according to a new study out of the UK. ... The Cost of Rent Index Study, released by money.co.uk on Thursday, analysed the average cost of renting a three-bedroom house in more than 50 developed countries - compared against the average living costs for a family of four. New Zealand is 13th on the list of most expensive countries to rent a three-bedroom house and 10th on the list of countries spending the highest percentage of monthly outgoings on rent. [In a table entitled 'Top 10 countries spending the highest % of outgoings on rent', Australia ranks 9th, just ahead of New Zealand.]
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2021/08/nz-ranked-as-13th-m…
# International, Rent, Housing market, International.The Stigma of a Scarlet E Eviction cases — called Scarlet E’s
Matthew Goldstein The New York Times (Paywall)[Scarlet E's] are a stubborn blot on a renter’s history. Piecemeal privacy legislation in some states may not be enough to protect millions of struggling tenants. ... The apartment was just what Chanque Jones needed: four bedrooms, and $500 cheaper than the run-down house she had been renting back in Chicago. It was a fresh start for her three sons, as well as for her mobile manicure business. Then an old eviction case turned up on a routine background check prepared for her landlord. It didn’t matter that she had gone to court and won. The fact that the case was filed at all was enough to mark her as a risk: what tenant advocates call a Scarlet E — the E standing for eviction. “I didn’t even know about the eviction record,” Ms. Jones said. Eviction cases are a stubborn blot on any renter’s history. They are nearly impossible to scrub away, even if the tenant made good on obligations or it was only a scare tactic by an aggressive landlord. The pandemic has given the problem new urgency: Although the Biden administration has announced a new eviction moratorium for much of the country through Oct. 3, millions of renters are behind on their payments after more than a year of economic upheaval and could face eventual eviction. Aware of the enormous consequences for renters who lost jobs or work hours because of the pandemic, a handful of states and cities have passed laws to make it easier for tenants to seal their eviction cases — a crucial step that can mean the difference between having a roof over their heads or not.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/business/eviction-stigma-scar…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Tenant databases.UK faces evictions crisis as thousands of renters on furlough or behind on bills have support taken away
Vicky Spratt (No paywall)The UK faces an evictions crisis within weeks as hundreds of thousands of renters either on furlough or behind on payments have pandemic support measures stripped away at the same time in a ‘perfect storm’. New figures shared with i show how 686,000 furloughed workers who are privately renting and 445,000 in private rental arrears could be at risk of losing their homes. Both groups face a crunch date on October 1 where campaigners claim they will be left to ‘sink or swim’ as pandemic lifelines are taken away. ... Charities, housing campaigners and local councils have warned the UK could now face a wave of homelessness with thousands of evictions likely to take place in the autumn and winter. (inews)
https://inews.co.uk/news/evictions-furlough-rent-arrears-pandemi…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Social housing? Not in my backyard, in fact, not even in my suburb
Julie Szego The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)This week’s dog-bites-man headline surely has to be: “residents push back on state’s social housing blitz”. Ah, the more things change. But who knows, just as few of us could have predicted our current dystopian reality, maybe one day I’ll open The Age to behold, “Mayors in Camberwell and Malvern welcome sprawling new public housing in tree-lined streets despite the king-hit to surrounding property values” — which, for a headline, is admittedly hideously bulky. ... The housing needs of poor people almost always come last when the rich get their say. The government is right to insist on having the last word so the state’s most vulnerable can obtain the security everyone else takes as a given.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/social-housing-not-in-m…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.High levels of homelessness amongst people seeking asylum in Sydney – new survey
(No paywall)A new survey by Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia and Western Sydney University’s Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), shows that people seeking asylum faced considerable financial hardship and high levels of homelessness during the first twelve months of the pandemic. The survey asked over a hundred respondents seeking asylum living predominantly in West and Southwest Sydney, about their housing, homelessness, income, and employment experiences since arriving in Australia, and since pandemic restrictions first took effect in 2020. ... Despite the state government’s moratorium on evictions in 2020, 29% of respondents were either evicted or moved from their accommodation because they were unable to pay rent. This is in part because so many people seeking asylum are employed in cash-in-hand jobs, making it difficult for them to demonstrate loss of employment to landlords. Approximately a third of respondents reported having difficulty paying rent (36%) and electricity/gas bills (34%) in the preceding twelve months. Moreover, 45% of respondents had run out of food in the previous 3 months. (Jesuit Refugee Service)
https://aus.jrs.net/en/news/high-levels-of-homelessness-amongst-…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.California promised 100% rent forgiveness for struggling tenants. Most are still waiting
Sam Levin The Guardian (No paywall)California’s ambitious program to provide rent relief to every low-income tenant struggling during the pandemic has been plagued by delays and challenges, and some renters who are waiting for the aid to arrive say they are now facing eviction threats. California officials have been working since March to distribute funds to landlords whose tenants fell behind on rent during the pandemic, and in June authorities promised that the state would pay off the entirety of the rent debt of qualifying tenants. But the program has been slow to roll out, with eligible tenants across the state having difficulties applying while others say they’ve had to wait months for funds. Tenant groups fear that if problems persist, hundreds of thousands of renters could be vulnerable to displacement when California’s eviction protections expire at the end of September.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/09/california-promi…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.COVID-19: Tenancy support for Victorian tenants
(No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force once again for Victoria and are in place until Thursday, 19 August. If you rent in VIC, here’s where to get tenancy support. (rent.com.au)
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Small-home dream can become a nightmare of red tape due to planning codes and laws
Sean Wales ABC (No paywall)Jiri Lev and his family are preparing to move into their new home. But they haven't gone down the mainstream path. "We built a small house to try and remain debt free — it's extremely small," Mr Lev said. To be exact, it's 7.2 by 3.6 metres. ... But they've been surprised by the amount of red tape and regulation that comes with building a small home.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/building-small-homes-can-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Local Government.