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
Australia’s environment is in a “poor and deteriorating state” – our built environment is a big culprit
Andrew Sadauskas The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Our built environment, particularly urban sprawl and farming, is driving endangered species to extinction, the latest State of the Environment Report has warned. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The five-yearly report was shelved after being handed down to the Morrison government in December last year. It was finally released to the public on Tuesday. It makes for grim reading.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/urbanism/environment/australias-en…
# Australia, Climate change, Federal Government, Planning and development.Joe is one of many New Zealanders forced to sleep on the streets of Sydney
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)New Zealander Joe Trueman arrived in Australia as a 14-year-old expecting his mother to meet him at the airport. She didn’t turn up. Young and homeless, and with uncertain visa status and no access to government support, he scratched an existence from busking while self-medicating with “drinking and drugging”. ... On Tuesday, a panel of homeless people without permanent residency – called non-residents – described themselves as invisible, as “nobodies” and “non-existent people”. They were often ineligible to work, or worked restricted hours, and couldn’t access government benefits or payments, healthcare or homeless shelters. Health, refugee and community organisations and representatives from the City of Sydney on Tuesday called on the federal government to end discrimination against this group.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/joe-is-one-of-many-new-zealander…
# NSW, Discrimination, Federal Government, Homelessness, Sydney.Apartment owners sound alarm over alleged building defects
Rhiannon Shine and Kirsten Robb ABC (No paywall)Buying an off-the-plan apartment has turned into an expensive, lengthy legal battle for Melbourne woman Tamara Railton-Stewart, and she is not alone. "I had no idea of the disaster of that decision," Ms Railton-Stewart said. She told ABC 7.30 her apartment in Melbourne's south-east, completed in 2015, was so riddled with defects it had to be gutted and was only recently rebuilt. And her situation is all too familiar. Building defects cost in the order of $2.5 billion nationally per year, according to a 2021 report from the Centre for International Economics (CIE) prepared for the Australian Building Codes Board. (7.30)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-18/apartment-owners-sound-al…
# Australia, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.How are we caring for older Australians in the winter Covid wave?
Jane Lee and Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)Almost 100 Australian aged care residents are dying every week in the winter wave of Covid, as public health measures remain limited around the country. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of carers are leaving the underpaid and overstretched aged care workforce.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2022/jul/19/how…
# Audio Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Older people.As police crack down on homelessness, unhoused end up in Mojave desert
Sam Levin The Guardian (No paywall)In a remote stretch of southern California desert, at least 200 unhoused people live outside, battling the extremes: blazing hot temperatures in the summer, snow in winter, rugged terrain inaccessible to many vehicles, a constant wind that blankets everything with silt, and no running water for miles. ... Residents are scattered in small communities dispersed throughout the desert, with some couples and individuals in isolated pockets on their own while others cluster together for safety and support. The campers have different stories about how they ended up there: they escaped domestic violence, lost a home during a divorce or to a fire, faced eviction during the pandemic, struggled with addiction, were ostracized because they were LGBTQ+ or were forced to leave home. ... LA county has received international scrutiny for its homelessness catastrophe and worsening inequality. It’s home to some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, yet has an estimated 66,000 unhoused residents and accounts for 20% of all Americans living outside.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/18/california-homel…
# International, Homelessness.To Fund Repairs, BC Landlords Can Raise the Rent
Jen St, Denis (No paywall)From Canada ... Tenants in a West End apartment building say they were caught off-guard when their property manager told them their landlord was applying for as much as a three per cent rent increase to pay for repairs to their building’s parkade. ... In 2018, the BC NDP lowered the annual allowable rent increase from two per cent plus inflation to just inflation. As a trade-off to landlords, the government introduced a new way for B.C. landlords to cover the cost of major repairs: property owners can apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch for a rent increase allowance for capital expenditures. ... [Robert Patterson, a tenant advocate at B.C.’s Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre says] “What it really amounts to is a transfer of wealth from tenants to landlords. Ultimately, who gains the benefit of those upgrades? Sure, the tenants can enjoy them, but it’s the landlord’s equity that increases as a result.” (The Tyee)
https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/07/15/To-Fund-Repairs-BC-Landlords-…
# International, Rent, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents.Housing focus on elderly homelessness
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Local councils in NSW are pushing the state government to fund more affordable and social housing for over-55s. Check out this article about Local Government NSW's submission to the NSW parlimentary inquiry.
# NSW, Homelessness, Local Government, Older people.Tenant advocate calls for cap on rent increases
Neil Mitchell (No paywall)The average rental asking price in Melbourne is rising fast, and a renter advocacy group is calling for fixed limits on rent hikes. In the June quarter, the median rental asking price in Melbourne was $460. While Melbourne is still the cheapest Australian capital city to rent in, median house rental prices have risen seven per cent year on year, and 2.2 per cent in the last quarter — and wage rises are not keeping up. Executive director at Better Renting, a renters’ advocacy organisation, Joel Dignam, says “rents are going up because vacancy rates are low”. ... Mr Dignam is calling for the government to introduce a limit on how much landlords can increase rents by. “We’d like to see government trying to cap some of these exorbitant rent increases,” he said. (3AW693 News Talk)
https://www.3aw.com.au/tenant-advocate-calls-for-cap-on-rent-inc…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Housing market.