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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
50% Discount try.shopecoheat.co Buy now Ad 1 of 2 · 3:08 try.shopecoheat.co 4 0:01 / 3:10 ABC is an Australian public broadcast service. Wikipedia Homelessness rises amid Australia’s national housing crisis
ABC Video Lab ABC (No paywall)A wave of demand for social housing is rising while more and more people are struggling to afford their rental properties, and supply is dwindling. We meet three people lost in the frenzy for an increasingly hard-to-find commodity – a home.
# Hot topic, Video Australia, Homelessness, Housing affordability.Labor under pressure to freeze rents as Greens and Coalition back inquiry into housing crisis
Paul Karp The Guardian (No paywall)The Senate has set up an inquiry into the rental crisis, a process designed by the Greens to pressure the Albanese government to agree to freeze or cap rising rents.
On Monday the Greens voted with the Coalition to delay consideration of Labor’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund (Haff) until 16 October, despite pressure from housing groups to pass the bill after the government pledged $2bn of direct funding for social and affordable housing.
The Greens and Coalition teamed up again on Thursday to establish the inquiry, which will provide an interim report by 23 September to provide input into the national cabinet process considering renters’ rights set up by the Albanese government.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/22/labor-und…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability.Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations urge immediate action on housing fund
Giovanni Torre National Indigenous Times (No paywall)The Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (Coalition of Peaks) has urged politicians to "stop squabbling" and take immediate action to resolve delays on the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) Bill.
Coalition of Peaks' Deputy Lead Convenors, Scott Wilson and Catherine Liddle, said housing was too critical an issue to "fall victim to political game-playing".
"Housing is a key social determinant of health; our people need housing now. It's time to stop procrastinating," Mr Wilson, who is Chair of the South Australian Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Network, said.
"Our politicians need to stop dragging this issue out and start taking action.
"There's no guarantee that come October the legislation will pass, and even if it does, by the time you even start building houses we're looking at 2025."
https://nit.com.au/22-06-2023/6467/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government.Call to close the homelessness gap for First Nations people
Patricia Karvelas ABC (No paywall)New ABS Census analysis has revealed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are vastly over represented in the nation's homeless population.
First nations Australians make up for a fifth of those experiencing homelessness, despite representing less than four per cent of the overall population.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/call-to-…
# Hot topic, Audio Australia, Aboriginal renters, Families, Homelessness.Animal shelters face unprecedented demand as tight rental market forces pet owners to make 'heartbreaking' choices
Anisha Pillarisetty ABC (No paywall)A South Australian charity supporting vulnerable people with pets says the housing crisis has pushed demand for its services to unprecedented levels.
Safe Pets Safe Families founder and chief executive officer Jennifer Howard said the foster care program was being inundated with calls on a daily basis.
"We have had to turn away so many people."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-27/sa-animal-shelters-face-s…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Most liveable city: How Vienna earned its place in housing history
Jake Blumgart City Monitor (No paywall)The annual ranking of the Global Liveability Index for 2023 from the EIU has seen Vienna retake the top spot as the most liveable city in the world.
This is the fourth time in the past five years that the Austrian capital has come out on top. Criteria include stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Within the latter category, which accounts for 20% of the score is “Availability of good-quality housing”.
https://citymonitor.ai/housing/red-vienna-how-austrias-capital-e…
# Hot topic, History International, Affordable housing, International, Planning and development.NYC’s affordable housing lottery a ‘mythic’ option for many homeless residents as wait times jump
David Brand Gothamist (No paywall)New York City’s homeless shelter population is swelling, but one method for moving people into permanent housing is taking longer than ever to complete.
The median timeline for shelter residents moving into city-financed apartments reserved for them has nearly doubled since 2020, according to city data.
Last year, it took about seven months for someone to move into those apartments after the approval process, the annual mayor’s management report shows. But in the 2020 fiscal year, it took less than four months. That timeline is considered to be a "critical indicator" of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's performance.
https://gothamist.com/news/nycs-affordable-housing-lottery-a-myt…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing, International, Planning and development.NYC Has More Housing Than Ever Before Yet It’s Still Not Affordable
Cate Corcoran The Brownstoner (USA) (No paywall)Can we build our way out of an affordable housing crisis? Developers, elected officials, policy experts, and others say more housing is needed to keep pace with a growing population and bring down prices.
But a look at historic data shows New York City today has more homes per person than in any decade since 1940, the earliest year for which figures are available. Yet housing is more unaffordable than ever.
The data suggests that merely adding units alone won’t solve the problem.
https://www.brownstoner.com/real-estate-market/affordable-housin…
# Hot topic International, Housing market, International, Planning and development.