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
Homelessness in bitter winter means mouldy, damp and wet conditions for rough sleepers
Conor Burke and Nakita Jager ABC (No paywall)Shane Sweeney wakes up most mornings in damp bed sheets after a night of rough sleeping on the frosty banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga. The former shearer, who turns 50 this year, sleeps in a makeshift home made from blue tarps and gazebos. Recent sub-zero temperatures have left everything wet and dank, and have made sleep elusive. "I tend to wake up two or three times or more … everything's moist, and your body reacts, you're just too cold to sleep," he said. Parts of Australia are recording their coldest temperatures in more than a decade — with spells of rain and icy weather expected to continue this week — and people sleeping rough are bearing the brunt. Mr Sweeney said he has struggled this winter to stay warm.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-30/homeless-bearing-brunt-of…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Should Australia's real estate industry be not-for-profit?
ABC (No paywall)Should Australia's real estate industry be not-for-profit? Australia's private rental sector has burgeoned rapidly over the last two decades as more investors take advantage of generous tax incentives for property profiteering. But there are growing calls for regulatory changes to make the sector more secure for the 31 percent of households who now rent. Professor Wendy Stone says banning 'no grounds evictions', making the sector more transparent, and non-profit real estate agencies are just some of the ideas that should be encouraged.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/should-austra…
# Audio Australia, Eviction, Rent.Do you love renting? Does it make you feel patriotic?
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)How good is renting? Historically, renters have always been a site of extraction. As the euphemism goes, they're a source of "passive income" for landlords. But in the 21st century, in the age of data harvesting, renters in Australia are also being mined for their personal data. And it's being extracted from them before they've even found a place to live. Do you want to apply for a rental property? You'll have to fill in an online application form so a private RentTech company can run a background check on you. Please provide a copy of your passport, driver's licence, Medicare card, utility bills, pay slips, bank statements, your boss' phone number, your rental and employment history, and more. It's far more information than is required to assess your ability to pay rent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-30/renting-housing-policy-ch…
# Must read Australia, Rent.Housing and mental health inequalities during COVID-19: the role of income and housing support measures
Ang Li, Emma Baker & Rebecca Bentley Taylor & Francis (No paywall)The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted people’s mental health and wellbeing. Using a national dataset of >11,000 Australians collected before and during the first two years of the pandemic, this study examines housing and mental health effects of COVID-19, and the extent to which access to government income support (social security measures, crisis payments and wage subsidy), early superannuation withdrawal, mortgage and rent relief, and tenant eviction moratoriums offered protection. Results show that the mental health gap between private rental and more secure housing tenures and between good- and poor-quality housing widened during the pandemic.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673037.2024.23669…
# Hot topic Australia, .In praise of public housing
Elizabeth Farrelly Architecture AU (No paywall)Once upon a time, crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in either direction, brought a surprise fillip of joy. There was the obvious stuff, of course – sparkling harbour, flower-burst opera house and so on. That was lovely, but no surprise. What astonished and delighted me every time was that so crass and self-concerned a city as Sydney chose to put the poorest people right at the heart of this glory. The most visible reminder of this was the Sirius building, the brutalist public housing custom-designed in 1978 by Tao Gofers for the Millers Point stevedores. It was said to resemble purple stacked television sets. To me, it was Sydney’s redemption.
https://architectureau.com/articles/in-praise-of-public-housing/…
# Must read International, Public and community housing, Rent.Senators say yes to expanding rent controls from July 1
Dutch News (No paywall)As expected, senators on Tuesday voted in favour of legislation that will extend rent controls to cover most of the Netherlands’ rental property market from July 1. “This is an enormous milestone,” said housing minister Hugo de Jonge, who is bowing out next week when the new government comes to power. “This new law will protect tenants and we really need it. The explosion in rents because of the shortage of housing has made things impossible for people with a normal income. This legislation is going to make a difference for thousands of tenants.” De Jonge said earlier he expects 90% of Dutch rental property will fall under rent controls in the new system.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/06/senators-say-yes-to-expanding-r…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Toronto residents flood city lotteries amid ‘impossibly unaffordable’ housing
Campbell MacDiarmid The Guardian (No paywall)Toronto inhabitants fed up with rising rents are flooding city-run lotteries for affordable housing in new developments, but the chance of being selected for a subsidized unit is often less than 1%. One new development in the city’s West End recently offered a random public draw to allocate 135 units with rents pegged to income ceilings that would cost hundreds of dollars less than market rates. Nearly 12,500 people entered the draw for the homes aimed at middle-income earners in the Galleria on the Park development.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/26/toronto-af…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Squatters take London’s housing crisis into their own hands
Suban Abdulla and Natalie Thomas Reuters (No paywall)In the shopping streets and housing estates of the south London town of Croydon, some once-derelict buildings are slowly coming back to life. At a former school, peeling walls are getting a fresh coat of paint, and laundry hangs on a line to dry. Over at a disused youth centre, there is laughter in the gymnasium-turned-dormitory, and a vase of purple flowers decorates a scrubbed kitchen counter. The Reclaim Croydon collective, a squatters’ group, has taken over disused commercial premises to provide beds for the homeless, saying it is providing a community-based solution to a broken housing market. “The government is failing homeless people,” said one of the youth centre’s new occupants, who goes by the name Leaf.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/britain-elec…
# Must read International, Rent, Security and safety.