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
Almost 10m UK households living in ‘cold, damp, poorly insulated homes’
Tobi Thomas The Guardian (No paywall)Almost 10m households across the UK are living in cold, damp and poorly insulated homes while not earning enough to be able to make improvements to them, according to analysis. A total of 34% of UK households or 9.6m are living in cold, poorly insulated homes, according to analysis of the English Housing Survey by the Institute of Health Equity and Friends of the Earth. These 9.6m households also have an income below the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum standard for a decent living, meaning it is unlikely they would be able to afford the costs of adding insulation to their homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/22/almost-10m-uk-ho…
# Hot topic International, Repairs.NYC landlords keep fewer stabilized apartments vacant than you think, officials say
David Brand Gothamist (No paywall)New York City’s housing agency says the number of low-cost, rent-stabilized apartments being held vacant plummeted last year amid an increasingly dire shortage of affordable units. The comparatively low number of housing units being held off the market — or “warehoused” — belies estimates by both landlord groups and housing advocates who are locked in a dispute over how to get owners to bring empty rent-stabilized apartments on the market. Landlords have argued that state rent regulations make the units so unprofitable that they’re better off leaving them vacant. Tenant groups have argued that money-hungry owners are starving the city’s affordable housing supply while they wait for changes to those regulations.
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-landlords-are-keeping-fewer-stabi…
# Hot topic International, .Ministry takes landlord to task for 'retaliatory' eviction attempt
Susan Edmunds Stuff (No paywall)A landlord has been told to pay a tenant $2186 for a termination notice that was found by the Tenancy Tribunal to have been issued in retaliation for a tenant’s complaint. A complaint was made to MBIE in April 2022 about water coming into the property. After a site visit in June, concerns were raised with the landlord, Wei Zhang, about that water as well as a smoke alarm and electrical fault. An extension cord was plugged into the bathroom to supply power to the lounge. The tenant’s son complained again in November about continuing electrical problems.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350192976/ministry-takes-landlord-…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Repairs.Six Years Into Rent Strike, Tenants Union Will Battle Landlord in LA Court
Lynn Ta & Jacob Woocher Truthout (No paywall)Los Angeles: This year marks the sixth year that the Hillside Villa Tenants Association (HSVTA) has been engaged in a ceaseless struggle to protect their homes in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. When the tenants first came together on a cold winter night in November 2018 — a meeting called by the late leader Luisa Ramirez, in response to notices from the landlord stating their rents would massively increase — surely none of them thought the fight would go on this long. Their struggle has become one of the longest lasting rent strikes in the history of the city, if not the nation, as dozens of tenants have not paid a dollar of rent in over three years.
https://truthout.org/articles/six-years-into-rent-strike-la-tena…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Now Fully Funded, Portland's Affordability Mandate Should Be A Model
Michael Andersen Sightline Institute (No paywall)Hey, here’s some cash. While you’re at the store, would you grab me some eggs? That’s the simple, efficient premise behind the housing policy just approved by Oregon’s most populous city and county. Here’s some cash. While you’re building those apartments, set aside some of them to be rented at less than the market rate. In a 3-2 vote Thursday, the Board of Multnomah County Commissioners followed up on a unanimous Jan. 31 vote by the Portland City Council to fully fund this concept in the form of Portland’s inclusionary housing program for rental projects.
https://www.sightline.org/2024/02/23/now-fully-funded-portlands-…
# Hot topic International, .Legal advocates warn against Peter Dutton's pledge to defund the Environmental Defenders Office
Samantha Dick ABC (No paywall)Legal advocates warn that federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's pledge to defund the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is a "retrograde step" that would ultimately disadvantage everyday Australians. Their caution comes amid mounting criticism over the legal unit's conduct, after a Federal Court judge accused EDO lawyers of engaging in a "subtle form of coaching" of witnesses from the Tiwi Islands and confecting evidence in an unsuccessful legal battle against Santos's Barossa project, north of Darwin.
https://www.notion.so/22-02-2024-Housing-News-Digest-d336ee44e20…
# Must read, Legal significance Australia, .Opinion: After the Voice, what can lawyers do to support First Nations peoples?
Melissa Burgess and Dara Read Law Society Journal (No paywall)The Referendum has come and gone, and in its wake, a burning question remains for many lawyers across Australia – what now? And what can the legal sector do to support First Nations people on the road to justice? By engaging in truth-telling and elevating First Nations voices, lawyers can be the change our children need to see, Legal Aid NSW’s Melissa Burgess and Dara Read write.
https://lsj.com.au/articles/opinion-after-the-voice-what-can-law…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters.The housing crisis has pushed thousands onto social housing waiting lists. How could a key government policy help?
Nicholas McElroy ABC (No paywall)Dean McCarthy has taken plenty of hits, but housing almost took him out. "Look, I've had over 50 general anaesthetic surgeries in my life," the 62-year-old says. An accident as a younger man resulted in years of hospital visits and ongoing health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder. He says reactive arthritis "galloped" though his body, leaving him unable to work since 2009. "I had very good job, good paying," he says. "I went from that to nothing and the rents became unaffordable." He faced homelessness until he was caught by a safety net he had almost forgotten he had applied for: social housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-10/social-housing-affordabil…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.