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
Why governments must meaningfully re-enter the housing market
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)I’ve lost track of the number of parliamentary inquiries into housing over the years, and hate to think of the countless hours many well-meaning people (along with self-serving barrow pushers) put into submissions, hearings and reports.
As demonstrated by the present crisis, decades in the making, it has all been for nought.
Our lemming-like march to a critical shortage of affordable shelter and ever-higher household debt has proceeded uninterrupted under governments of all stripes.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2023/03/01/michael-p…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development.Friday essay: how policies favouring rich, older people make young Australians Generation F-d
Alison Pennington The Conversation (No paywall)Working to buy your own home is a rite of passage in Australia, firmly rooted in a time when government delivered plentiful, affordable housing. Following the senseless poverty and destitution inflicted by price-gouging landlords during the Depression, we created a better, more equitable housing system after World War II.
Up until the mid-1970s, government took a hands-on approach to housing, constructing homes for people to buy or rent at low cost. Investors weren’t prioritised over the rights of people who needed shelter, and governments helped people buy with cheap loans. It was these settings that generalised the home-owning dream to over 70% of Australian households by the late 1960s.
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-policies-favouring-…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, History, Housing affordability, Housing market.This summer it reached 39 degrees inside Charles's rental home - ABC News
Ellen Coulter ABC (No paywall)It's a hot day in Perth and inside Charles Pratt's home, it's 33 degrees Celsius.
"You're sweating all the time," he said. "I'm often exhausted. I don't sleep well at all. I'm always dehydrated."
Even though it wasn't a particularly hot summer in Perth, Mr Pratt recorded temperatures as high as 39C inside his rental, and an entire week that hovered above 30.
Last summer he had to move out of the house for two weeks because it was too hot.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-08/it-reached-39-degrees-ins…
# Must read Australia, Utilities water energy internet, Campaigns and law reform, Climate change, Health, Housing affordability, Minimum habitability standards.Australia has taken a ‘light touch’ with Airbnb. Could stronger regulations ease the housing crisis?
Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs The Conversation (No paywall)The current housing crisis has renewed debates about how to regulate short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb. The international research on the impact of these rentals is clear: when landlords “host” tourists rather than residents, housing supply is depleted, rents rise and neighbourhoods change.
Given Australia’s dire shortage of rental housing, restricting short-term rentals seems like a no-brainer. New research published this week showed the share of rental properties under $400 per week has fallen to 15% in most capital cities – half of what it was a year ago.
https://theconversation.com/australia-has-taken-a-light-touch-wi…
# Hot topic Australia, Planning and development, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Rental properties: Soaring rents and limited leases make for tenant anxiety
Maida Pineda The Age (No paywall)I have an email alert for rental properties in my neighbourhood. Each day I get sent a listing of all the available apartments that fit within my ceiling price. I usually get a list of several places nearby within my budget.
In the past few weeks, however, the only thing available is a car park rental. Ouch! I live in Southbank, a short skip away from the CBD.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/soaring-rents-and-li…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.‘Now you’re evicting them?’: Victorians in ‘life-changing’ housing scheme face homelessness again
Stephanie Convery and Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of participants in a “life-changing” Victorian housing program designed to permanently end rough sleeping face the prospect of returning to homelessness after being served with eviction notices.
From Homelessness to a Home (H2H) was launched by the state government in July 2020 to widespread acclaim from the housing sector. An extension of emergency measures to accommodate Melbourne’s rough sleepers in hotels during the city’s Covid-19 lockdowns, the program was allocated $202m to help move about 1,845 households and families out of homelessness.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/06/now-youre…
# Australia, Eviction, Homelessness, State Government.The Growing Risk of Eviction in the Suburbs
Devin Q. Rutan, Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond Eviction Lab (No paywall)American suburbs have changed dramatically over the last several decades. Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, suburbs were largely white, middle-class spaces. Over time, they’ve become poorer, more diverse, and—as we show in a new study published in RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences—the site of a growing share of eviction cases.
We used millions of court records from across the country to track how common eviction cases are in cities and their suburbs, and how that has changed over time. Building on previous work, we focused on 74 of the largest metro areas in the U.S.—cities and their surrounding suburbs—where we had reliable data covering the years 2000 to 2016. Our sample included metro areas across the country, from Boston to Phoenix, Pensacola, FL to Olympia, WA.
https://evictionlab.org/growing-risk-of-suburban-eviction/?s=31
# Research alert International, Eviction, Tribunal NCAT.US teachers grapple with a growing housing crisis: ‘We can’t afford rent’
Edwin Rios The Guardian (No paywall)In her first year as a student teacher, Gina Gray also delivered groceries for Instacart. She was driven to give back to the city that raised her, but also needed help with the bills and rent.
Now Gray, a Black English teacher at Middle College high school in Los Angeles, takes on additional work in the district such as teaching summer and Saturday schooling and commutes one hour each day from her rental in Norwalk-La Mirada, a district near Los Angeles.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/02/us-teachers-cali…
# International, Housing affordability, Work, employment, Young people.