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
Can I have a pet and be housed, too? It all depends…
Wendy Stone and others The Conversation (No paywall)Barriers to housing for people with pets around Australia are the focus of newly released national research by an interdisciplinary team. Why? Because laws are changing nationally but are highly inconsistent. A systematic national approach is needed to reduce the numbers of people who have to give up their pets to secure housing – especially as we return to post-COVID “normal”. The full report [at: https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/350?utm_source=website&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=slider] was reported in the 'Housing News Digest' on 18 February 2021.
https://theconversation.com/can-i-have-a-pet-and-be-housed-too-i…
# Research alert Australia, Land lease communities, Public and community housing, Rent, Strata, Homelessness, Older people.Church of England poised to make ‘widespread and generous’ use of land to tackle housing crisis
Martin Hilditch Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Report commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury says the Church should look at rejecting highest financial bids for land in order to deliver more “genuinely” affordable housing.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/church-of-england-pois…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing.UK homeless deaths rise by more than a third in a year, study finds
Clea Skopeliti The Guardian (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Deaths among homeless people have risen by more than a third in a year, according to an analysis by a social justice group that found that almost 1,000 unhoused people had died across the UK in 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/22/uk-homeless-deat…
# Hot topic International, Health, Homelessness.‘Regrettable’ Fremantle tent city brought no benefit to rough sleepers, council reports
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A controversial camp in Fremantle provided no long-term benefit to homeless people and was a “regrettable event” that tarnished the city’s image, according to a report by the local council. The ‘tent city’ at Pioneer Park, which slept up to 100 people at its peak in January, also took a toll on local businesses and incurred a raft of additional costs for the City of Fremantle.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/regrettable-fr…
# Australia, Homelessness.'Like moving a herd of elephants': San Francisco's history of houses on wheels
Gabrielle Cannon The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of San Franciscans lined the streets on Sunday – phones drawn and ready – to glimpse a unique procession slowly making its way through the city. “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand on the sidewalk,” a police speaker blared. “There’s a house coming down the street.” The two-story, 5,170-sq-ft green Victorian, known as the Englander House, had spent more than a century in the heart of San Francisco. But for years it stood vacant and fell into disrepair ... The city, which suffers from a housing shortage, was ready to build a 48-unit building in its place. But instead of demolishing the beautiful building, teams lifted it off its foundation, put it on wheels, and heaved it to a new home six blocks away. ... “It was like moving a herd of giant elephants – and about the same speed."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/23/san-francisco-vi…
# History International, Housing market.Perth's homelessness crisis: the WA election issue Mark McGowan can't shake off
Narelle Towie The Guardian (No paywall)Just a few blocks from Western Australia’s parliament, dozens of vulnerable people have been turfed out of a city hotel and on to the streets after the state government refused to pay for their accommodation. Like the last time they were moved on, they have nowhere to go. These are some of the people at the centre of Perth’s homelessness crisis, one of the few election issues on which WA’s “most popular premier in history”, Mark McGowan, does not control the narrative.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/24/perths-ho…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Social housing owned by for-profit providers increases by 75%
Dominic Brady Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Data collected by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) showed that 49 for-profit providers reported having 9,313 social homes compared with 5,342 in the year to March 2019. The data reflects the growth of the for-profit sector in recent years, with a number of high-profile private companies registering for-profit arms in recent times.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-housing-owned-b…
# International, Public and community housing, Landlords and agents.Fires bring home climate-driven urgency of rethinking where we live – and how
Barbara Norman and others The Conversation (No paywall)As we were still recovering from last summer’s fires in southeast Australia, the southwest fires brought in 2021. Both were far more intense fires than seen before, driven by deep drying, extreme heat and powerful winds. It’s a harsh reminder that climate change is going to bounce us up and down with increased frequency.
https://theconversation.com/fires-bring-home-climate-driven-urge…
# Hot topic Australia, Planning and development.