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
New duties for councils to provide support in safe accommodation for domestic abuse victims
Press release (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Domestic abuse victims who need to escape home will be provided with better support in safe accommodation from today (1 October 2021). New regulations and guidance published today set out the level of support councils are required to provide. These include: (1)A clear expectation that expert specialist support is provided to victims in safe accommodation that best supports their needs, whether in refuges or other safe housing. (2) Guidance that states B&Bs or mixed homeless hostels are not the right place for victims to recover from abuse. (3) Councils will support to victims to stay in their own homes, if the perpetrator has left and the home can be made safe. (GOV.UK)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-duties-for-councils-to-pr…
# International, Domestic violence, Local Government.‘Haves and have-nots’: how the housing crisis is creating two New Zealands – a photo essay
Tess McClure Photographs by Cody Ellington The Guardian (No paywall)Returning home to a country he couldn’t afford to secure a home in, New Zealand photographer Cody Ellingham began to roam suburban streets at night with his camera. In a new series of photographs, he reflects the unease and discomfort of a generation locked out of one of the world’s most unaffordable housing markets.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/30/haves-and-have-not…
# International, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market.Access to appropriate accommodation remains problematic for teens leaving Tasmania's Ashley Youth Detention Centre
April McLennan ABC (No paywall)For James*, Ashley Youth Detention Centre (AYDC) in northern Tasmania is like his second home. ... The 51-bed Ashley Youth Detention Centre for youth offenders aged 10-18 years old is set to close by 2025 and is to be replaced with two new facilities: one in the north and one in the south. Both will operate with a therapeutic and preventative approach to youth justice and incarceration. But advocates are concerned that if supported release programs are not improved, then the risk of former residents without appropriate accommodation returning to custody will increase.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-02/concern-mounts-for-tasman…
# Australia, Homelessness, Young people.Thousands face income hit as disaster payments are cut: UNSW
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Thousands of people in electorates across Melbourne and western Sydney will be driven back into poverty with the end of special COVID-related disaster payments, and new analysis warns it could stifle the nation’s recovery out of lockdown.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/thousands-face-income-hi…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Welfare.How share housing as a single parent helped improve Indi's quality of life
Matilda Marozzi ABC (No paywall)When Indi Williams, 27, was given notice to vacate her rental in Melbourne's outer suburbs, the prospect of finding an appropriate and affordable home for herself and her two-year-old daughter Alice was daunting.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/share-housing-as-single-parent-h…
# Australia, Eviction, Affordable housing, Personal stories, Women.NT pleads with Canberra to pay for new homes on Aboriginal homelands, plays catch-up on remote housing targets
Kate Ashton ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory has asked the Australian government to urgently fund new homes and upgrades on traditional Aboriginal homelands, where people are living in "dilapidated houses for shelter, in severely overcrowded conditions".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-04/nt-asks-federal-governmen…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Families, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.Forget your post-Covid property hopes: crazy house prices are the only sure thing
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)The latest lending finance figures suggests there has been a recent slowing of home loans, but it remains far from a “cooling off”. Meanwhile, as the restrictions on travel look likely to be eased, the question remains how quickly our holiday spending will return to old levels – or will we keep buying furniture for a while to come?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/oct/05/for…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.New data shows that homelessness is a women’s rights issue
Hannah Brais, Alex Nelson, Jesse Jenkinson and Kaitlin J. Schwan The Conversation (No paywall)Visible homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the housing crisis across Canada. For women, girls and gender-diverse people, homelessness is often hidden, meaning that they are more likely to avoid shelters, couch surf or remain in abusive relationships than end up on the streets. Because of this, we know less about their experiences.
https://theconversation.com/new-data-shows-that-homelessness-is-…
# International, Homelessness, Women.