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
Central West locals take in strangers as housing crisis escalates
Arianna Levy and Micaela Hambrett ABC (No paywall)A perfect storm of booming tourism and a tightening real estate market has created a new class of homeless in regional NSW. They are the paid professionals, with full-time, consistent work, who are finding themselves sleeping in their cars as short- and long-term accommodation becomes increasingly elusive in the current housing environment.
Now, some locals are opening their homes to complete strangers just to keep them off the streets.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/locals-taking-in-stranger…
# NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Regional NSW.Investment Firms Aren’t Buying All the Houses. But They Are Buying the Most Important Ones.
Elena Botella (No paywall)The median price of an American house has increased by 28 percent over the last two years, as pandemic-driven demand and long-term demographic changes send buyers into crazed bidding wars. ... The Wall Street Journal reported in April that an investment firm won a bidding war to purchase an entire neighborhood worth of single-family homes in Conroe, Texas—part of a cycle of stories drumming up panic over Wall Street’s increasing stake in residential real estate. Then came the backlash, as cool-headed analysts reassured us that big investors like BlackRock remain insignificant players in the housing market compared with regular old American families. The truth is between the two ... (Slate Magazine)
https://slate.com/business/2021/06/blackrock-invitation-houses-i…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk buys in Bellevue Hill for $4 million
Lucy Macken Domain (No paywall)NSW Labor member for Bankstown Tania Mihailuk and her husband, Canterbury-Bankstown councillor Alex Kuskoff, have bought into the booming eastern suburbs housing market, paying about $4 million for a house in Bellevue Hill. Ms Mihailuk said the property was purchased as a family investment, and she would be remaining in the family’s Bankstown home.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/bankstown-mp-tania-mihailuk-buys-…
# NSW, Landlords and agents.Homelessness NSW welcomes hotel accommodation for people sleeping rough in Greater Sydney lockdown area as first step
(No paywall)Homelessness NSW has welcomed the commitment of the NSW Government to ensure hotel accommodation for all people sleeping roughin the Greater Sydney lockdown areaas further evidence that ending homelessness is achievable. (Homelessness NSW)
https://homelessnessnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/MR-shu…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Darwin's COVID-19 lockdown put the homeless at risk, so these groups are getting to work
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)When Darwin was sent into a lockdown on Sunday, stay-at-home orders were suddenly issued to hundreds of people without a home to stay in. Health groups have spent the days since racing to distribute masks and safety advice to the city's transient Indigenous population, known locally as long grassers, a sprawling community of people staying in Darwin but generally hailing from the remote NT. For many of them, lockdown restrictions have closed off the possibility of returning home.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/nt-darwin-covid-lockdown-…
# Australia, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.How much support will the City of Sydney’s affordable housing expansion offer inner-city residents?
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)The NSW Government approved plans last month to extend the City of Sydney’s affordable rental housing scheme throughout the inner-city, with the new changes to come into effect on the 1st of July this year. ... Shelter NSW CEO John Engeler welcomes the extension of the strategy. “We commend the City of Sydney for persevering over a number of years to produce a municipality-wide plan for boosting the stock of much needed affordable rental housing,” Engeler told City Hub. “This scheme offers something practical for a group that is often overlooked – financially stressed, low-to-moderate-income renters in the private residential housing market.” The move comes as the tide of renewal has priced out many longtime inner-city residents growing increasingly vulnerable to rental stress. “The forces of gentrification and an overstimulated housing market have combined to make the city unaffordable especially for renters in the private market,” Engeler said. “We … are concerned about the ‘hollowing out’ of the city – with ordinary people forced to the city fringes.”(City Hub)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/06/how-much-support-will-the-c…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Local Government, Planning and development.How our housing can make it feel like a Russian winter
Chris Jensen (No paywall)Australia’s housing just isn’t good enough when it comes to dealing with winter temperatures – we need to take lessons from the Northern Hemisphere. ... If you are renting, the chances are you won’t put a screw in a wall to hang a picture let alone make changes to the thermal properties of the building. (Pursuit)
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how-our-housing-can-make…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Home ownership, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.We Already Have Viable Models for Quality Affordable Housing
Walter Jaegerhaus (No paywall)From the United States ... Historically, the housing shortage now experienced by many U.S. cities is not unique. A similar problem plagued industrializing cities of the late 19th century and became critical after World War I, especially so in countries that lost that conflict. Affected nations took extraordinary remedial steps; many of those were politically motivated and strengthened underlying social democratic ideals. But the design professions also participated and responded with numerous innovations and experiments, which in turn generated much-needed discussions about the use of shared space and the quality of life that citizens are supposed to be able to enjoy. (Common Edge)
https://commonedge.org/we-already-have-viable-models-for-quality…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.