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
Councils can’t handle more housing? Tell ’em they’re dreamin’
Andy Marks The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Fixing our nation’s housing affordability woes requires more than policy, planning, or market remedies. A change in mindset is necessary. The way we live – the “vibe”, one might say, of our relationship with housing – needs reimagining.
Wholesale imaginative change is possible. Australians unexpectedly made cultural icons of the fictional family featured in the 1997 film, The Castle. The Kerrigans revelled in “the serenity” of living adjacent to an airport and under high voltage powerlines. They were secure in their sense of self, of family, of place. And we loved them for it.
When NSW productivity commissioner Peter Achterstraat advocated an increase in housing density in Sydney’s CBD and inner suburbs, particularly in areas “close to transport hubs”, and near “jobs and amenities”, locals were anything but serene.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mayors-say-they-can-t-handle…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.Housing Trust photographic exhibition celebrates social housing tenants
Natalie Croxon Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)Jo Fisher has held a stable job at the University of Wollongong as the manager of its bookshop for 30 years, yet still found herself staring down homelessness less than two years ago.
# Hot topic NSW, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Personal stories.NSW street count reveals increase in people sleeping rough in Wollongong, Illawarra
Natalie Croxon Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)The number of people sleeping on Wollongong's streets has jumped over 30 per cent in a year, the latest street count has revealed.
# Hot topic NSW, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Regional NSW.Could rent controls ease Australia's housing crisis?
Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)Renters are bearing the brunt of Australia’s housing crisis, with stories of extortionate rent increases for poor quality homes making headlines all too often.
One solution being flagged by advocates is to control rents, either through freezes or caps on how much landlords can increase the amount.
The Greens have called for a countrywide rent freeze as a condition of support for the Albanese government’s housing Australia future fund.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/28/could-ren…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing affordability.The one place in Australia with rent control
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)After renting more than 20 places, Grace Freeman said her last experience was great thanks to her landlord’s acceptance of pets and speed at repairing minor or major problems with the place.
“I was able to live my life as anybody who’s lucky enough to own a house or live with their parents is,” she said. “I knew that my landlord would treat me as a whole human being, pets included, and that we would just be able to work to resolve any issues that may arise – which never did.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-one-place-in-austral…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing affordability.The Greens’ class conflict strategy on housing is a risk to Labor – and renters have nothing to lose but their bonds
Paul Karp The Guardian (No paywall)Anthony Albanese claims the ‘new Noalition’ is to blame for delaying the $10bn housing fund but Labor still needs to urgently solve the supply problem.
When Labor politicians are particularly sick of the Greens, they like to sledge them about voting with the Coalition against Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme.
I won’t get into the history wars about the carbon pollution reduction scheme, but let’s start by noting you can tell the Albanese government is furious about the delayed $10bn Housing Australia future fund because it’s compared the Greens’ stance on the bill to the CPRS many, many times.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/24/greens-cla…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.Anthony Albanese’s approval rating falls to lowest level since election, Guardian Essential poll shows
Paul Karp The Guardian (No paywall)Anthony Albanese’s approval has fallen to its lowest level since the 2022 election and almost half of voters think Australia is heading in the wrong direction, the latest Guardian Essential poll suggests.
More than two-thirds of voters (68%) think the Albanese government is not doing enough to ensure “affordable and secure rentals” while three-quarters (75%) said the same about the cost of living, the survey of 1,148 respondents found.
The poll was taken in the final parliamentary sitting week before the winter break, after the Greens and Coalition teamed up in the Senate to delay the government’s $10bn housing future fund until October.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/27/anthony-a…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing crisis: Is talk of NIMBYs and council red tape a red herring?
Rachael Dexter and Royce Millar The Age (Paywall)Sally Edwards burst into tears when she opened an email from her real estate agent this week.
It was notice of a $600-a-month rent increase for the North Melbourne flat the 40-year-old single mum shares with her 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter.
Under her new lease, monthly payments would rise by $600 to $2542. This, just a year after her last monthly rent increase of $150.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/housing-crisis-is-ta…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Personal stories.