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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Opinion: 'Landlord' feudal, outdated term that help paint housing providers as villians
Roger Valdez (No paywall)From the United States ... First of its kind legislation has been proposed in Ohio to change references in state law from “landlord” and “tenant” to “housing provider” and “resident.” ... [The argument is] often, housing providers in Ohio and the United states are small family-owned businesses, not powerful land barons. Updating language is an important first step to accurately reflect this in the law, and it should lead to better policy.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/06/04/…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Canana's Housing Market Is Out of Control
Dan Darrah (No paywall)House prices and rents in Canada are skyrocketing. There’s only one solution to the social crisis this has caused: a massive expansion of public housing, releasing people from dependence on a rigged market.
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/06/canada-housing-rising-rent-real-e…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.'More need for compassion' from some landlords - Housing Minister
Nita Blake-Persen (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Housing Minister Megan Woods is encouraging some landlords to show more compassion to ease the country's housing crisis.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/20187…
# Audio International, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Where there’s smoke, there’s call for crackdown on cigarettes in units
Felicity Caldwell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Apartment dwellers who annoy their neighbours with cigarette smoke could face stricter rules under proposed changes to the law being considered by the Queensland government.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/where-there-s-smoke-t…
# Australia, Strata, Health, State Government.Aged care: How do we honour our obligations to the elderly?
ABC (Paywall)Victoria finds itself in the middle of its fourth lockdown since the COVID-19 pandemic began fourteen months ago. Once again — and in an ominous symmetry — it is aged care facilities that are at the centre of the outbreak, and therefore at the centre of public and political attention. ... This is all the more bewildering in light of the release, earlier this year, of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which highlighted the dangers of permitting aged-care staff to work across multiple facilities, and the inadequacy of training requirements — not least when it comes to infectious disease control.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/aged-…
# Audio Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Older people.Totonto neighbourhood just bought a building to save it from greedy landlords
Karen Longwell (No paywall)From Canada ... A Toronto community group just bought a mixed residential and commercial building to save it from a possible ghost hotel renovation and to preserve the affordability of their neighbourhood. ... Known as the Mona Lisa building (for a mural on one side), it is one of Kensington Market's anchoring properties with 12 affordable residential units and five business units including a beloved variety store. (blogTO)
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/06/54-56-kensing…
# International, Eviction, Affordable housing, Housing market.Telling the local story of migration in the COVID era
Glenn - The Census Expert (No paywall)With international migration on hold, population pundits are paying close attention to internal migration around Australia. Glenn takes a look at the trends in the latest data and showcases how to tell this story using your Community Profile. There's a link here to his earlier blog where he explores the figures from the December 2020 quarter and discusses the emerging trends for people moving around Australia. (.id informed decisions)
https://blog.id.com.au/2021/population/demographic-trends/tellin…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.There has been a spike in snap auctions and it's pushing property prices higher
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)The fear of never owning a home is producing a spike in so-called "snap" or "on-the-spot" auctions. It is where property sales are rushed through prior to auction day. Research shows the number of pre-auction sales have surged over the past few years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-08/covid-pandemic-revolution…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.