Everybody's Home – campaign to fix Australia's housing system

Everybody's home campaign
Everybody's Home is a new campaign by a coalition of organisations in the housing and community sectors. The campaign will bring national attention to reforms urgently needed to fix Australia’s housing system. The TU is happy to be supporting this campaign aimed at improving housing for everyone, including renters.
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Housing not stadiums urge housing organisations

image of an empty stadium
Peak housing and homelessness organisations urge Premier to invest the $2 billion of public money towards housing and support for the most vulnerable in our community and not to rebuild sports stadiums.
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Make Renting Fair gains momentum

Make Renting Fair campaigners and supporters in Redfern
Redfern tenants and community show their support for Make Renting Fair
In NSW current tenancy legislation allows landlords in the private market to end a tenancy without having to give a reason. This means renters are often scared to enforce their rights because they know they can get kicked out for things like asking for repairs or challenging an excessive rent increase. Make Renting Fair is a community campaign calling for law reform to end these unfair evictions. Support for the Make Renting Fair campaign continues to grow.
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St George community housing energy efficiency strategy

Clarissa
Clarissa, St George tenant
Clarissa and other tenants at St George Community Housing are benefiting from new energy efficient, affordable homes. From retrofits to new builds St George Community Housing (SGCH) is working to help tenants save on their energy bills. Paul van Reyk, Special Projects Officer with the Tenants' Union, spoke with Patrick Ryan, Head, Innovation & Impact, SGCH.
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Federal Government must not let us down - ACOSS and National Shelter release 6 point National Housing Affordability Plan

Releasing today its 6 point "Housing Australia's People: A Serious Plan'", ACOSS and National Shelter set out a comprehensive package of reforms that would deliver growth in social and affordability housing for people on low and modest incomes and take the heat out of the open housing market for all.
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CHOICE research reveals renting crisis

Woman holding cat. List of statistics concerning text which reads "Discriminated against when renting? 50% of renters report discrimination when househunting. For having a pet (23%). For receiving government payments (17%). Age (14%). Having young children (10%)
Discrimination is widespread amongst renters
Research finds renters facing insecurity, poor quality housing, and discrimination

CHOICE, the National Association of Tenants’ Organisations and National Shelter are calling for governments to prioritise rental security and quality issues, not just housing affordability, as a national study reveals widespread fear and discrimination faced by thousands of Australians.
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Life begins at 40!

Julie Foreman
Julie Foreman, TU Executive Officer
Julie Foreman, Tenants' Union of NSW Executive Officer reflects on the TU's 40 years of working for tenants rights and housing justice. She introduces a compilation of stories which celebrate the achievements of that hard work and also take a clear-eyed view of what still needs to be done.
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Renters in parliament

Jenny Leong MP, Shayne Mallard MLC, Julie Foreman TU Executive Officer, and Tania Mihailuk MP, cutting the cake at the launch of the TU 40th celebrations
Jenny Leong MP, Shayne Mallard MLC, Julie Foreman TU Executive Officer, and Tania Mihailuk MP
At the launch of the Tenants' Union 40th anniversary celebrations at the Northcott estate in Surry Hills in February 2016, we asked the three Members of Parliament who attended about their experience renting in Sydney. The MPs were Jenny Leong (Member for Newtown), Shayne Mallard (Member of the NSW Legislative Council) and Tania Mihailuk (Member for Bankstown). See what they had to say in this 3 minute video and article.

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The importance of a secure home

Carol and Vivian
Carol and Vivian, social housing tenants
Firstly, to introduce us, I am Carol (on the left in the picture) and my sister is Vivian (on the right). We are social housing residents living in Riverwood and have lived here since 1984. Originally we were in a third-floor unit on – a word I dislike – a housing estate. Because Vivian had a health problem we were given a transfer a short distance away to a small villa. Our introduction to the Tenants’ Union of NSW was while I was doing a Diploma of Community Work/Welfare at TAFE around 2007.
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Fighting evictions in residential parks

Jill Edmonds
Jill Edmonds, park resident
In 1990 I bought a manufactured home in a residential park (now called a ‘residential community’). I knew there was an element of risk in using my meagre retirement funds to become the owner of an ‘affordable’ house located on land owned by someone else. I did not know it was possible that park owners who had approval for redevelopment were permitted to evict pensioner residents and take ownership of their homes with no legal requirements for compensation. I thought such things could only happen in third-world countries!
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