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
Preventing a Covid rent arrears crisis: financial support package for renters
(No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Joint briefing by housing and advice organisations ... The following [nine recommendations] sets out how a package of grants and no-interest loans could be provided in England, to sustain tenancies and act as a bridge to recovery.
https://www.stepchange.org/Portals/0/assets/pdf/Covid-Rent-Arrea…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.'Hold on to that hatred’: Boomers aren’t to blame for Australia’s property mismatch
Liz Allen The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Baby Boomers are often blamed for Australia’s housing affordability crisis, but empty-nesters living in large homes are just a symptom of Australia’s property and policy mismatch. Rather than dampen housing prices, COVID has seen costs soar. In fact, the growth in house prices doesn’t look like abating. The great Australian dream of owning a home is out of reach for many Australians, especially those under 40, and will remain that way without drastic policy action. ... Blaming Baby Boomers for Australia’s housing mismatch seems logical, but it’s lazy and simplistic. The reality is, Australia’s housing policies are an out-of-date mess, like a ball of decaying rubber bands wrapped together and stuffed in the bottom drawer of the office filing cabinet. Try to untangle the policy nightmare and more failures are exposed. Negative gearing isn’t helping first homebuyers, but voters missed the opportunity of changing this at the 2018 federal election and we’ve not seen much done since to arrest rising house prices. Without serious and earnest reform, housing affordability will worsen and inequality will widen and become more stubborn. The generational warfare in housing policy is politically useful. While we’re quibbling about which generation is at fault, politicians are getting off scot-free.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/hold-on-to-that-hatred-b…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.Auckland, Wellington tenants endure relentless rent rises
Chris McDowall and Anne Gibson (No paywall)Auckland edges Wellington as the most expensive city in New Zealand for tenants - but rents in the capital have risen more in real terms since 2000. Auckland rents up 45%, Wellington up 53%. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/auckland-wellington-tenants-…
# International, Rent, Housing market.Public housing's failing so how do we fix it?
Lexi Metherell ABC (No paywall)Until around the 1980s, public housing was considered a mainstream option for low incomes, but now, there's really only enough places available for the most marginalised, such is the shortfall of public housing dwellings. It's widely agreed the system is broken. There are solutions on the horizon, but they need political will and creative thinking from investors. (The World Today)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/worldtoday/public…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing.How capitalism is reshaping cities (literally)
Nate Berg (No paywall)The very, very short explanation of the cause and effect of the 2008 financial crisis can be summarized in two words: real estate. Risky mortgages traded like stocks were blown into a bubble that popped, ravaging the finances and savings of people all around the world. In the aftermath, institutional investors bought up swathes of foreclosed properties, and pushed the financialization of housing into hyper-speed. [Read on] (Fast Market)
https://www.fastcompany.com/90637385/how-capitalism-is-reshaping…
# International, Housing market.Australia needs more social housing. That’s it
Paul Dutton The Guardian (No paywall)Our society is heading for a collapse unless we protect the most vulnerable instead of holding them to a higher standard than the rest of us ... There’s been a number of media stories about the growing rates of homelessness in Australia and the complete failure to even articulate the issue in passing by the same prime minister who has said that he lays his hands on people to provide them with comfort and healing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/australia-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness.Born Evicted: Eviction During Pregnancy Worsens Birth Outcomes and Child Wellbeing
Gracie Himmelstein and Matthew Desmond (No paywall)Disparities in health at birth expose fissures in the American dream. The conditions of a child’s gestation and birth—social and environmental conditions over which they have no control—help or hinder a child’s ability to grow and flourish. Birth outcomes impact a person’s health and wellbeing across their lifetime, as well as multiple generations within families and communities. In a March 1st JAMA Pediatrics journal article, we examine how evictions impact birth weight, prematurity, and infant mortality. We find that infants born to mothers who have an eviction filed against them during their pregnancy are more likely to be born prematurely or low birth weight, and may also have higher mortality compared to infants born to mothers evicted at times other than pregnancy. In other words, in utero subjection to eviction harms infant health and development.
# International, Eviction, Rent, Health, Women.I’m a CEO sleeping out for Vinnies, but 30 years ago I really was sleeping rough
Jason Blaiklock The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s quite terrifying to remember, but 30 years ago I was living rough. I was on the street, just down the road from the Matthew Talbot Hostel in Sydney, where the St Vincent de Paul Society might have given me shelter. Then, however, I didn’t have the capacity to reach out for help.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-m-a-ceo-sleeping-out-for-v…
# NSW, Homelessness, Personal stories.