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
How much it would cost to fix homelessness
Michal Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Both sides of politics have been challenged to find $1.2 billion a year for social housing to address a growing homelessness crisis, in a long-term plan that would also impose a 1 per cent social housing levy and zoning rules on developers. The new campaign from the state’s peak homelessness body, ahead of the March election, details a specific program to make social housing equate for 10 per cent of all NSW residential dwellings by 2050. It is currently 4.7 per cent, below the OECD average of 7.1 per cent, Homelessness NSW said. ... Homelessness NSW will also call for a social housing levy of 1 per cent on the total development value of any project or subdivision of land with more than three dwellings, to start in 2027. While the group concedes such levies are rare, it argues the state already has a similar scheme to raise money from developers for infrastructure.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/how-much-it-would-cost-to-fi…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Local Government, State Government.JobSeeker has kept recipients below the poverty line for years, but advocates say they've never been worse off
Evan Young and Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)Some experts argue the cost-of-living crisis and inflation is actually hitting those on low incomes harder than those on higher incomes. CPI tracks increases in a basket of goods and weighs them all equally. But it doesn't account for the fact that low-income households spend a greater percentage of income on essentials such as food and housing — expenses that are now rising the fastest. ... The Henderson poverty line, one of the most commonly used metrics, had the poverty line, as of June 2022, for a single adult at $616 per week. The base JobSeeker rate for a single adult with no children is currently $334 per week. Also, read James Bryan-Hancock's article entitled: 'Welfare saved my life. If payments are raised to the poverty line more Australians will survive' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/17/welfare-saved-my-life-if-payments-are-raised-to-the-poverty-line-more-australians-will-survive] Read two articles by Luke Henriques-Gomes in 'The Guardian'. His first article is entitled: 'Inflation and inadequate welfare fuelling Australia’s food insecurity crisis, Foodbank finds' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/inflation-and-inadequate-welfare-fuelling-australias-food-insecurity-crisis-foodbank-finds]. His second article is entitled: 'A third of single mothers in financial hardship due to welfare policies, analysis finds' at: [ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/18/a-third-of-single-mothers-in-financial-hardship-due-to-welfare-policies-analysis-finds] Read Jewel Topsfield's article entitled: 'Report shows 540,000 Victorian households went hungry in the last year' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/report-shows-540-000-victorian-households-went-hungry-in-the-last-year-20221016-p5bq32.html].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-18/jobseeker-centrelink-belo…
# Australia, Families, Federal Government, Welfare, Women, Work, employment.Charity calls for government funding as NSW South Coast homeless shelter shuts its doors
Jessica Clifford and Nick McLaren ABC (No paywall)Last night, 12 homeless people in Nowra on the NSW South Coast had a warm bed and a meal at Safe Shelter Shoalhaven, but tonight they will be on the streets, with the shelter to close immediately. Peter Dover, the chief executive of Salt Care, a local church-led charity that has run the shelter for the past five years, said funding for the service had run dry.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/shoalhaven-homeless-shelt…
# NSW, Homelessness, Regional NSW.House prices are falling and unlikely to rebound. Bring it on...
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There’s an adage that something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. When it comes to Australian home values, I would add “and able to pay”. And the importance of that addition is about to become abundantly clear to home owners as borrowing costs continue to climb. Not many have noticed it yet, but I suspect we’ve just passed an historic turning point in the prospects for property price growth, in which future gains will be much lower than in recent decades. I also happen to think that is a very good thing. ... Today, Australian housing debts sit at record highs compared with income. Why? Because every time the central bank made it cheaper to borrow, we went out and leveraged to the max to feed our property desires. And literally no policymaker saw fit to stop us. As a result, the Baby Boomer cohort now finds itself sitting on large gold mines, which their kids will inherit. But not all kids will be so lucky. And it’s likely to be a very different story for future generations.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/house-prices-are-fal…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax, Young people.Queensland housing minister urges compassion after ‘appalling’ call to raise rents by 20%
Eden Gillespie The Guardian (No paywall)Queensland’s housing minister says it’s “appalling” that landlords have been advised to raise rents amid a rental crisis after a Brisbane real estate agent encouraged increases of more than 20%. Leeanne Enoch’s comments come after Guardian Australia reported that Ray White West End had sent an email to landlords urging them to increase rents by more than double the inflation rate.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/17/queenslan…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.Affordable housing legislation to come before parliament in next few months: Collins
Rachel Chun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The first homes for essential workers and vulnerable Australians financed by Labor’s new housing fund will not have foundations dug and frames up until the end of next year. Housing and Homelessness Minister Julie Collins said legislation for the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund was nearly complete and would be brought before parliament in the next few months.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/affordable-housing-legis…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing association previously censured by regulator over short-term tenancies imposing ‘no fault’ eviction on family
Peter Apps Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Inside Housing has seen documents that reveal a family of five housed in Westminster are being evicted by [Kinsman Housing] at the end of a short-term tenancy despite having no rent arrears or any other problems. The family has a young baby and a child with special educational needs. They face homelessness as a result of the eviction.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/housing-association-previou…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, No-grounds evictions.From Romantics to 21st century radicals: Coleridge, Shelley and the roots of communal living
Fiona Sampson The Guardian (No paywall)Friends who have lived in communes tell me the worst thing is the endless meetings. All those issues a household bickers into resolution – who will sort the recycling, who finished the milk – are decided by committee. Yet from Findhorn ecovillage in Moray to the co-housing community at Postlip Hall, in Gloucestershire, Britain has more than 400 “intentional communities” or communes, and in the post-Covid era they’re fielding more inquiries than ever. Some people turn to co-housing to be able to afford a roof over their head. But many, according to the website of umbrella organisation Diggers & Dreamers, are looking for a more values-led, potentially unorthodox way of life. There are echoes of the 1960s and 70s experiments in communal self-sufficiency, when food was farmed organically, kids were home-schooled and some communities went entirely off-grid. But the roots of the movement go much further back than that. Also, check Sally Howard's earlier article entitled: 'Is the boom in communal living really the good life?' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/17/is-the-boom-in-communal-living-really-the-good-life]
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/15/from-romantics-to-…
# History International, Public and community housing, Share houses.