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
‘It’s just been a hellride’: how the end of the affordable housing scheme is pushing families to the edge
Stephanie Convery and Eden Gillespie The Guardian (No paywall)Richard and Susanne Orlando spent last Christmas with their 16-year-old son, Wayde, in a single, cheap motel room. Unlike other guests, they weren’t travelling; the motel was emergency accommodation. The family had become homeless only days before.
The Orlandos had been evicted from their affordable housing property, one of 32,000 nationally that had been leased to renters under the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS).
After spending years in the shelter of below-market rents, they and other NRAS tenants are being thrust into a private rental market vastly more expensive and competitive than when they left it, coupled with a state-based social housing system that is on the verge of collapsing under the weight of need.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/10/its-just-…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Families, Personal stories.Calls to extend Aboriginal housing program to stop people 'falling through the cracks'
Shannon Schubert ABC (No paywall)Shannon Kennedy was living out of his car and struggling with declining mental health when he received a lifeline.
The 33-year-old Tatti Tatti and Mutti Mutti man admits he was "always on the run" — not knowing where here he would get his next meal or whether he would be dry that night.
"I was living out of my car. I was sleeping wherever I could if I could get a roof over my head for the night," he said.
It was at this point Mr Kennedy was accepted into a program offering him stable, affordable housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-11/aboriginal-housing-progra…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters, Affordable housing, Personal stories.Urgent call for federal intervention amid housing crisis
Nina Hendy National Indigenous Times (No paywall)An urgent call for the federal government to tackle the Indigenous housing crisis has been made amid the nation's escalating cost of living pressures.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association (NATSIHA) has joined forces with the Community Housing Industry Association, National Shelter, and Homelessness Australia amid surging rents and interest rate rises to call for immediate government intervention.
Three pieces of legislation are currently before the Senate in a bid to ease housing pressure in Australia. Housing bodies argue government intervention is crucial in a bid to avoid a national crisis.
https://nit.com.au/05-04-2023/5508/urgent-call-for-federal-inter…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters, Federal Government, Housing affordability.Who pays for mould and can your landlord actually increase the rent?
Melissa Heagney-Bayliss and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Many Australian renters are finding it difficult to find and keep a roof over their head amid the nation’s rental crisis, making it increasingly important for them to know their rights.
Rental markets across the country have been recording ultra-low vacancy rates and rapidly rising rents – even for substandard homes – for months.
While a competitive market can make tenants wary of rocking the boat with their landlord, there are some protections in place to help those facing excessive rent increases or living in maintained properties.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-are-your-rights-as-a-r…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Mould.‘We can’t produce miracles’: Minns rules out rent cap, promises supply drive
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Premier Chris Minns has dashed tenants’ hopes for immediate relief from skyrocketing rents by ruling out a cap on rent increases, but promised major efforts to increase housing supply to ease price pressure in the long term.
An unprecedented squeeze helped raise the median Sydney apartment rent to $620 a week in March, up from $500 a year ago, with more pain on the way as migration restarts post-COVID and supply remains stagnant, and vacancy rates remain at or below 1 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/we-can-t-produce-miracles-mi…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, State Government.Worse before it gets worse: The A to Zetland of Sydney’s rental crisis
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)I sank further and further into my chair at the National Press Club as I watched Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, in his soft and dispassionate tone, read out his prophecies of doom.
Rental stress, he said, was at least as big an issue as mortgage stress. And with population growth high and housing supply low, it would likely get worse before it gets ... well, slightly less worse.
On my phone, browsing one-bedders in Zetland, the evidence was writ large. Apartments that were going for $500 per week a year or two ago were now $700 minimum. The next day, confirmation: the latest Domain rental report found the median unit rent in Sydney’s inner south was $760 a week.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/worse-before-it-gets-worse-t…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Inner Sydney homes mysteriously taken off the market
Megan Gorrey and Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The state’s social housing agency has been blasted for attempting to sell publicly owned terraces in inner Sydney as tens of thousands of people face decade-long waiting times for housing assistance.
Residents and City of Sydney councillors expressed dismay after five public housing properties in Glebe were listed for sale by auction in the past few weeks, some with a price guide of $1 million.
The Glebe Society president Ian Stephenson criticised the bid to offload the properties – which have since been removed from the market – as NSW’s ballooning social housing waitlist passed 51,000.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/inner-sydney-homes-mysteriou…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Housing affordability, Sydney.In the wake of gentrification: The relocation of public housing tenants
Josh Clay Honi Soit (No paywall)Carolyn moved into public housing at 82 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe, in the early nineties with nothing but a mattress, a black-and-white TV, and some clothes. There were certainly some issues — poor sunlight and a lack of ventilation meant that mould bloomed quickly in the newly constructed building. Nevertheless, over the last thirty years, Carolyn and their neighbours made this place their home.
“We help each other out,” said Carolyn, a Wiradjuri person, “one has plants, the other one does another person’s shopping, or does the other person’s washing … or looks after the cat.”
The resident cat Koko, a chocolate Burmese, has been passed among residents as people became sick, passed away, or were otherwise unable to take care of her. Carolyn recently took up care of Koko after her owner became unwell.
https://honisoit.com/2023/04/in-the-wake-of-gentrification-the-r…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Personal stories, Strong communities.