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
Push the Optimism Forward: Destigmatizing Homelessness and What We Can Do About it
Ahmad Bonakdar and Stephen Gaetz (No paywall)From Canada, For too long, policymakers have not treated the issue of homelessness with enough weight. It is often pushed aside in favour of more pro-growth agendas. For the most part, what we see today as “modern” mass homelessness has come from the rise of neoliberal policies that have led to a social housing crisis. Historically, before the millennium, efforts to bring the public’s attention to the issue of homelessness have not been a priority. Also, policies in the 1990s were not prevention focused and therefore allowed homelessness to become a social issue. What made the problem worse was the myths spread through the media about what causes someone to become homelessness. (Homeless Hub)
https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/push-optimism-forward-destigmati…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Young people.Australian renters facing biggest rent hikes in 12 years, amid surging house prices
David Chau ABC (No paywall)Australian tenants are experiencing their biggest annual rent increases since January 2009, during the global financial crisis. he median rent of houses and units jumped to $476 per week in June, a 6.6 per cent increase compared to the same time last year, according to the latest CoreLogic data. Regional tenants were hit with their biggest yearly rent hike ever, with the median figure up 11.3 per cent to $441. It was driven largely by sea changers (or tree changers) wanting a better lifestyle and no longer needing to commute to the CBD every day as they did in pre-COVID times.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-19/rent-corelogic-property-h…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.The Sydney suburbs where rents are cheaper than they were five years ago
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)House rents across Greater Sydney are holding at a record high, but rents in a string of suburbs are still more than $100 a week cheaper than they were five years ago. Inner-city Millers Point and Ultimo, and Clovelly in the eastern suburbs, are among 11 suburbs where the median weekly asking rent has dropped more than 10 per cent below what it was back in 2016.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sydney-suburbs-where-rents-ar…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.Sydney lockdown: The real effect of unaffordable and insecure housing in a pandemic
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A person’s living situation is one of the biggest factors in controlling the virus, and the pandemic highlights the haves and have-nots in Sydney once again, leaving south-west Sydneysiders at higher risk. The NSW government at the weekend locked down three entire local government areas – Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown — in a serious escalation of the health order in a bid to stop the virus from spreading in two main settings: the workplace and the home. Doing so laid bare the housing inequalities residents face in these communities where the virus has taken hold and is spreading through entire families. That’s because households in south-west Sydney look a little bit different: multigenerational homes have been on the rise for many decades and have almost become the norm. Sometimes by cultural choice, sometimes by economic necessity. But the rates of overcrowding – a form of homelessness – are much higher too. This is a living situation when three additional rooms are needed to house a family comfortably, according to international standards.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-lockdown-the-real-effect-o…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market.Scrapping stamp duty would help home buyers and state economies, report finds
Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Scrapping stamp duty in favour of annual land taxes would encourage upsizers and downsizers to move house, benefitting both home buyers and state economies, new research from the federal government’s affordable housing arm [National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation] has found. ... The NSW government is planning to phase out the one-off large stamp duty in favour of a smaller but annual land tax. The proposal in its current form does not affect existing property owners, to avoid double taxation, and gives households the option of paying an upfront stamp duty or an ongoing annual land tax when they buy. The ACT government is in the process of switching away from a transfer duty.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scrapping-stamp-duty-wou…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government, Tax.California Turned Pandemic Rentals Into Permanent Housing For Homeless People
Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari (No paywall)Nationally, Native Americans have the second-highest rate of homelessness among all racial groups, behind Pacific Islanders. That often translates into overcrowding, where two or three families live under one roof. Joshua Ray ... is a social worker with ... the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians. They're headquartered in the rural town of Lakeport about a two-hour drive north of San Francisco. Ray says homelessness and poverty are huge problems for their tribe. That's why they applied for a $1.2 million grant from the state to purchase and renovate a 10-unit apartment complex in Lakeport, Calif. It's part of a new program called Homekey, a statewide effort to quickly convert existing properties into temporary or permanent long-term housing. Since launching in June 2020, Homekey has created nearly 6,000 new units statewide for people experiencing homelessness. They did it by cutting through a lot of red tape and using existing buildings, mostly hotels and motels, but also vacation rentals, a college dormitory, single-family houses, office buildings and apartment buildings. (npr.org)
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1016482694/california-pandemic-re…
# International, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.Urban planner and policy leader ‘made a difference’
Robert Freestone and Richard Whitington The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)JOHN MANT, 1936-2021: John Mant who died on July 10, aged 84 left a legacy still in the making, especially in the field of urban planning. With a passion for public policy and social justice, he claimed many distinctions as lawyer, planner, public servant, and politician. He was Gough Whitlam’s Principal Private Secretary on dismissal day, November 11, 1975. ... His vision for the places where we live, work and relax, and how we move between them, was informed by the need to put common sense, consultation and competence above the frequently prevailing forces of short-termism, sloth and surreptitiousness.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/urban-planner-and-policy-leader-…
# History NSW, Planning and development.From Sydney to Shanghai: China’s luxury retirement homes draw millions from investors
Bloomberg News The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From China ... Retiree William Tang recently decided to swap his life in downtown Shanghai for a luxury elder-care development in the city’s far west, paying $US220,000 ($300,000) to rent a two-bedroom apartment for 15 years. “It is more like a resort,” Tang said after viewing the Ardor Gardens showroom, which highlights amenities including an indoor swimming pool, yoga rooms, wine tastings and round-the-clock care. For a growing number of Chinese and international investors, elder-care developments like Ardor Gardens are becoming irresistible bets. Money is pouring into the sector amid renewed attention on just how quickly China is ageing.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/from-sydney-…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Older people.