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
Lockdowns spark city exodus as thousands head to the hills
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydneysiders are abandoning the city in favour of cheaper housing and lockdown-free life in the state’s regions as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends migration around the country. A record net 11,800 people left the nation’s capital cities in the three months to the end of March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday, with Sydney and Melbourne hit hardest by the pandemic-fuelled drain. ... Of those leaving Sydney, the biggest movement was by people aged between 45 and 64, with a net 2700 ditching the nation’s largest city. They took their children, with a net loss of 2100 people aged under 14.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/lockdowns-spark-city-exo…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.Wall Street is buying up family homes. The rent checks are too juicy to ignore
Hanna Ziady (No paywall)Housing markets are hotter than ever, and big money is getting in on the act. Pension funds, investment firms and Wall Street banks are snapping up family homes in Europe and the United States at a rapid pace as prices rocket higher, looking for alternatives to lockdown-hit office parks and shopping malls, and betting that a permanent increase in remote working following the coronavirus pandemic will keep demand for suburban houses elevated. At the same time, the soaring cost of home ownership means that growing numbers of younger Americans and Brits renting rather than buying houses as they start families and gravitate toward the suburbs. Some of them may find their next landlord is based on Wall Street or in London's financial district. Analysts argue that this will improve standards in the rental sector and offer more choice in desirable neighborhoods. But some tenants who rent from corporate landlords dispute this, alleging substandard services and excessive rent increases. (CNN Business)
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/02/business/family-homes-wall-st…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Terrifying, cold and a lot of loud noises’: Homeless young people falling through safety net
Jewel Topsfield The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homelessness organisations warn that young homeless people are falling through the gaps, with many existing homelessness services geared towards adults. Melbourne City Mission chief executive Vicki Sutton said a quarter of Victoria’s homeless population were aged between 12 and 24, with 6000 having no safe place to sleep each night. “Despite the alarming number of young people seeking help from homelessness services, they make up only 2.9 per cent of main tenants in current models of social and public housing,” Ms Sutton says.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/terrifying-cold-and-a-l…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Young people.Homeless camp pops up at Parliament as Perth mourns deaths of 56 rough sleepers
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A homeless tent city has appeared on the doorstep of Parliament to protest the shortage of affordable housing in Western Australia. About a dozen people slept in tents and mattresses at Solidarity Park on Tuesday night, flanked by two banners with the words “housing crisis, humanitarian crisis”. Volunteers helped the rough sleepers with warm drinks, food, and clothing. It comes six months after homeless people camped at Pioneer Park in Fremantle as the state’s housing crisis reached breaking point, and just hours after mourners gathered at the steps of Parliament to honour Noongar mother-of-six Alana Garlett, who died in hospital after falling ill while sleeping rough in Perth’s CBD. ... [The Fremantle camp] pushed the homelessness issue to the fore and became a hot topic in the lead-up to the March state election. Campers were moved into temporary accommodation in hotels in February ... Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. But advocates say it doesn’t go far enough and more investment in public housing is needed.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/homeless-camp-…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, State Government.Rental crisis hits pet owners hard, increasing homelessness and demand on animal shelters
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)The rental crisis is proving an extra challenge for pet owners across regional New South Wales, forcing some into homelessness and others to rehome their beloved animals to improve their chances of finding a place to live. Brad Hayes found the idea of giving up his dog Kosci too difficult, so instead he has been living in a tent for six months on the state's south coast while attempting to find a pet-friendly rental. ... "I applied for — I think — six in a week and when they found out I had a dog they said, 'No, we don't have a place for the dog.'" ... [Joel Dignam from Better renting] said New South Wales should adopt policies like in the ACT or Victoria, where landlords weren't allowed to discriminate against an applicant for having an animal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/rental-crisis-hits-pet-ow…
# NSW, Discrimination, Rent, Homelessness, Regional NSW.How Karen and Jamie Goullet found their 'calling' and have given more than 50 senior dogs a forever home
Lucy Stone and Sally Eeles ABC (No paywall)It started with an old dog named Sally. She was a very old dog that was left at an animal shelter in Clontarf, north of Brisbane. Sally didn't have much time left, so the shelter manager picked up the phone asked Karen and Jamie Goullet for help. And soon, Sally had a home for the rest of her life. ... What is most important for them is providing a safe, permanent home for animals that have given years of love and loyalty to humans, only to end up homeless at their most vulnerable age.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-02/whats-your-story-brisbane…
# Australia, Homelessness.Palmerston rentals empty as NT government signs new housing contract with developer
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)Jacinta Benger was excited to be moving into her new home, a two-storey, three-bedroom Palmerston townhouse known locally as one of the "shipping container units". She admired the modular, modern design of the buildings, which had been shortlisted for an urban development award. She collected the keys in 2016, and became the first person to occupy the newly minted rental she moved into during April that year. ... Ms Benger's unit was among a group of developments intended to provide affordable housing in the satellite city south of Darwin. ... [The Northern Territory government paid more than $6 million when it bought the units off the plan in 2013] ... all 16 houses are now locked up and empty after teams of inspectors were sent in to scrutinise potential defects. ... By late 2018, chairman Allan McGill [of not-for-profit organisation Venture Housing Company who received the buildings from the NT government after they were completed in 2015] had been handed a compliance report examining how the buildings corresponded to national construction standards. He said engineers had identified a large number of potential defects across about half a dozen units they inspected, finding issues including cracked wall linings, damage from water ingress, and interior staircases where no handrails had been installed — contrary to approved designs.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/nt-empty-palmerston-commu…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.As Canberra's housing market continues to climb, renters like Diane face an uncertain future
Niki Burnside ABC (No paywall)Diane Asenoguan rents a modest apartment in Amaroo, in Canberra's north, but she loves it. Over 70 and a long career with ACT Health behind her, a series of financial pressures meant Ms Asenoguan was not able to buy a home. Living on a pension, she has been on a waiting list for seniors' housing for 18 months, and knows it could be a long time before that becomes possible. So when she received a letter in June informing her that her rent would increase from $360 to $400 per week, she questioned whether she would be able to make ends meet. "[It was] completely unaffordable," she said. "In that letter they stated they understood that this increase was above the CPI but that they wanted to reflect market value." ... Better Renting executive director Joel Dignam said people like Ms Asenoguan were caught "between a rock and a hard place", forced to choose between the uncertainty of a month-to-month lease or the financial burden of a steep increase in rent. ... ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury ... said a rental increase of 10 per cent or more, even on a new tenancy agreement, was not permitted without a tenant's consent. ... Mr Rattenbury said the ACT government would also be introducing reforms that included ending no-cause evictions, which were "designed to ensure that tenants can assert their rights without having fear of retaliatory evictions".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-31/rent-prices-rise-in-canbe…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Older people, State Government.