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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Archive
Five-bedroom house to living in a car: The rise of our older homeless women
Anna Wall (No paywall)Fourteen years ago, Elizabeth* owned a business and was living in a five-bedroom home overlooking the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. Now, after a messy divorce, she’s lost her home and has even spent three months living in her car. Far from the image you’d expect of a homeless woman, she is one of a growing number of older Australian women who find themselves losing their financial security later in life, and is warning others to protect themselves. (Starts at 60)
https://startsat60.com/media/news/rise-of-homeless-older-women-i…
# Must read Australia, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Homelessness funding at risk amid state and territory government dispute, services say
Nour Haydar ABC (No paywall)Homelessness services and women's shelters fear they will have no choice but to cut frontline staff at a time of surging demand, as state and territory governments remain locked in a dispute with the federal government over who should fund wages in the sector.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-01/homelessness-funding-stat…
# Australia, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.Stockpiling Space:How the pandemic has increased housing inequalities between older and younger generations
Colin Wiles (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This report looks at the growing inequalities in housing assets and housing space between renters and owners, between rich and poor and, most significantly, between older and younger generations.1 These inequalities have grown over the past decade, but have been exacerbated by the pandemic of 2020–2021. The report considers the implications of these inequalities for health, wellbeing, and political stability and explores the failures in housing policy that have led to this inequality, the problems raised by an ageing population, and the need for government action to promote and encourage downsizing from under-occupied properties. The policy proposals that conclude the report are sensible and realistic.(Intergenerational Foundation)
https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Stockpiling-Spa…
# Research alert International, Families, Housing market.Affordable housing monitoring
(No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... We've created an affordable housing monitoring tool which can provide clear, accessible, accurate and up-to-date information on affordable housing in Southwark. (Southwark Council)
https://www.southwark.gov.uk/innovate/collabrative-project/affor…
# International, Affordable housing, Local Government.Renters left to freeze in poorly insulated homes
Jarni Blakkarty (No paywall)When Alex Bayley moved into their Californian bungalow in the Victorian town of Ballarat in 2013, they had no idea how cold it was going to get. In winter, the temperature inside drops to about 2°C overnight, but without enough money to run the heater, there's no option but to suffer through the cold.
https://www.choice.com.au/money/property/renting/articles/renter…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.House prices: Landlord sells rental to tenant below market value
Ben Leahy (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Arpit and Hinal Patel arrived at a small, Far North unit in 2017 simply looking for a rental. Yet, as they stepped inside the Kaitaia flat, they were actually walking into the first home they would ever buy - they just didn't know it yet. That's because they had chosen to rent from Jane, a landlord passionate in her belief that property investing came with social responsibility. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/house-prices-landlord-sells-rental…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Landlords and agents.It’s an ‘aged-care budget’... but will it deliver or kick the can down the road?
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In the wake of a damning Aged Care Royal Commission, Prime Minister Scott Morrison set high expectations for a big jump in industry funding in this year’s federal budget when he described it as “an aged-care budget”. However, it now appears that the government is trying to manage those expectations, with informed opinions circulating in Canberra suggesting that an additional $10 billion in funding for the aged-care sector is imminent – but stretched out over the next four years.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/it-s-an-aged-c…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.Social housing waiting list could fill a town larger than Gladstone
Felicity Caldwell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are so many people waiting on the social housing register, they could fill a town larger than Gladstone as Queensland faces a major housing “crisis”. More than a dozen of Queensland’s leading community organisations have launched a campaign, Town of Nowhere, calling for the state government to invest $4.1 billion to build 14,700 homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/social-housing-waitin…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Families, Homelessness, Women.