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 and evictions have taken so many of my family. I want it to stop
Benita Windie, as told to Jesse Noakes The Guardian (No paywall)Nine years ago we lost my sister. All the kids loved her – she was the best auntie for all her nephews and nieces. Everyone loved her. She was a very strong person. She would do anything for anyone. She’d take the shirt off her back. When my sister was a child, she was assaulted and she nearly died. Years later, when her abuser was about to be released from prison, she used to ring me every day screaming down the phone because she was so scared that he was going to come back.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2024/fe…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Discrimination, Eviction.'Unprecedented' demand means Australia's community legal centres are having to turn people away
Sarah Richards ABC (No paywall)More than a decade ago, Rachel* was signed up to "hundreds of thousands" of dollars worth of debt at a time when she was experiencing domestic violence. The Queensland resident was unable to get support to help her intervene with the bank. She said the loan was acquired "under circumstances the bank should've known were wrong" and "things were not okay". "I spent 10 years trying to resolve this situation myself," she said. "I was ready to give up." It wasn't until a couple of months ago that a financial counsellor referred Rachel to a free community legal centre, Caxton Legal Centre, who helped her by talking to the bank on her behalf.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-08/queensland-caxton-legal-s…
# Hot topic Australia, .MPs’ ‘stunning’ property portfolios fuel crossbench calls for negative gearing changes
Lisa Visentin, Rachel Clun and Olivia Ireland The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 65 per cent of all federal parliamentarians own two or more properties, drawing a stark contrast with the lived experience of millions of voters who rent as key crossbenchers and the Greens push the Albanese government to put negative gearing changes back on the agenda. All MPs and senators must declare their property holdings in their register of interests, which is publicly available. In the House of Representatives, where MPs must declare property owned by themselves or their spouses, 103 of 151 federal MPs own two or more properties, and 88 have declared having at least one investment property. Only a small number of MPs are renters.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/mps-stunning-property-po…
# Must read, Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, .Kempsey mother in a private rental without shower access stuck in 12-year wait for social housing
Charles Rushforth and Isla Evans ABC (No paywall)The scarcity of rental properties that support people with disabilities in regional New South Wales is leaving people like Petrina Williams and her children struggling to live safely and comfortably. Ms Williams, who has numerous physical disabilities and mental health conditions, and uses a walker, has been on the social housing list on the New South Wales Mid North Coast for 12 years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-14/specialist-disability-acc…
# Must read Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing.Victoria rent crisis: At least 15 per cent of rental properties fail legal standards
Sarah Petty realestate.com.au (No paywall)Victorian families searching for affordable homes to lease are facing dud prospects that in many cases are failing to meet legal standards for rentals. New research by Tenants Victoria and the Consumer Policy Research Centre showed at least 15 per cent of rentals assessed breached the Residential Tenancies Act years after it was updated in 2021.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/victoria-rent-crisis-at-least…
# Must read Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Security and safety.ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejects Canberra landlords 'excessive' rent increase
Charlotte Gore ABC (No paywall)A Canberra landlord's attempt to introduce an "excessive" 20 per cent rent increase on their tenant has been stopped by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT). In the ACT, if a landlord wants to increase a tenant's rent more than 10 per cent above Canberra's housing Consumer Price Index (CPI), they must apply to have this approved by ACAT. The owner of the apartment, Empire Global Developments, applied to increase the rent on a one-bedroom property from $425 per week to $510 per week – an increase of $85 per week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-09/act-excessive-rent-increa…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.When it comes to Australia’s homelessness deaths, we can’t change what we don’t measure
Lisa Wood The Guardian (No paywall)If you are reading this in Australia, your odds of living to the ripe old age of 81 are good, as that is now the average age of death in the country. Australia now has the third highest life expectancy globally. But this average masks a sobering three-decade gap in life expectancy for people who have experienced homelessness.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2024/fe…
# Must read Australia, Discrimination.I Hate Landlords. How Do I Avoid Becoming One?
Sophie K Rosa Novara Media (No paywall)“I’m an only child and a nephew of aunts and uncles with no children. I’m also a committed socialist who might end up owning multiple homes. What’s the most ethical way to deal with this dilemma? I can admit to a fearful and precarious instinct against selling them, but I loathe the idea of becoming a landlord like the parasites I rail against.” – Reluctant Landlord
https://novaramedia.com/2024/01/17/i-hate-landlords-how-do-i-avo…
# Hot topic International, .