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
CT Voices Call for Zoning Reforms and Renter Protection to Curb Cycle of Evictions and Homelessness
Hugh McQuaid CT News Junkie (No paywall)Connecticut Voices for Children called Wednesday for a series of zoning and land use policy changes as well as greater protection for renters in an effort to break a “vicious cycle” of evictions and homelessness exacerbated by the state’s deficit of affordable housing. The nonprofit think tank released the latest in a string of reports on Connecticut’s housing crisis.
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2024/01/17/ct-voices-call-for-zoning-re…
# Hot topic International, Rent.International students say they want to study in Canada, but staying is a problem if they can't find housing
Vanessa Balintec CBC (No paywall)Incoming George Brown international student Harshal Bhasgauri says he's dipped into his family's savings in India to pay months of rent in advance just to get a shot at finding a place to live in Toronto for the school year. Even then, he says the past four months of searching for housing were filled with unanswered and rejected rental applications, leaving him wondering why he was invited to come to Canada if there was no housing available.
"I am always moments away from like a mental breakdown, just from the stress of wondering if I'm going to be homeless," said Bhasgauri, 24.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/international-students-affected-b…
# Hot topic International, .Housing Australia, the Accord and others ways the government wants to boost supply of housing.
Zuzia Buszewicz Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)With the size of the estimated need for social and affordable housing nationally confirmed, I moved to investigate the newest solutions introduced by the federal government to provide relief in the housing crisis.
First, I looked into the HAFF, the highly anticipated and, at points, feverishly debated Housing Australia Future Fund. HAFF is a funding mechanism promising to deliver 30,000 new affordable rental homes in its first five years.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/housing-australia-boosting-housi…
# Must read, Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Rental availability at record low across the country
ABC (No paywall)There's more bad news for tenants, with data showing the number of properties available to rent remains at stubbornly low levels.
Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of the New South Wales Tenants' Union, talks about the latest figures.
On housing, is Labor listening?
Peter Mares Inside Story (No paywall)The government seems to be ignoring valuable ideas raised during consultations on its housing plan… When the Albanese government asked citizens to help develop its National Housing and Homelessness Plan, almost 1200 people joined community forums, webinars, stakeholder roundtables and targeted discussions run by consultants to the Department of Social Security.
# Hot topic Australia, .Experts have said for years we need more social and affordable housing. So where is it?
Evan Young ABC (No paywall)Children living in tents in the bush. Single mums sliding into homelessness after rent increases. Pensioners sleeping in vans after working all their lives. We've all seen stories of the many Australians engulfed by the housing crisis, as well as the fierce debate about how to best go about correcting course. For years there's been one solution most experts have raised over and over again: building more social and affordable housing.
But it doesn't seem to have happened yet.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/where-is-the-social-and-a…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Public and community housing.State of Victoria sued over plans to pull down public housing towers
Rachael Dexter and Royce Millar The Age (No paywall)The Victorian government’s plans to demolish Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers is facing a legal challenge, with a class action filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday arguing the redevelopment adversely affects the human rights of thousands of tenants. Announced as a key part of the state’s landmark housing package in September, then-premier Daniel Andrews promised that all the towers dotted across inner Melbourne would be razed and rebuilt to fit three times as many residents over the next 30 years.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/state-of-victoria-su…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.‘Unliveable’: Real Estate Agent Wanted $2500 A Month To Rent A House So Messy You’ll Literally Gag
Lachlan Hodson Pedestrian (No paywall)Messiah of the renting population Jordan van den Berg, known online as Purple Pingers, closed off his 2023 with a final post to his socials flagging a property he had discovered was up for rent in regional Victoria, charging $2500 a month. Which given the area — Mangalore, a town two hours north of Melbourne — sounds like it isn’t too expensive… until you see the photos of the “home”.
I swear, no matter how ready you think you are, you aren’t.
https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/purple-pingers-2500-month-messy-h…
# Must read, Hot topic, Video Australia, Rent, Security and safety.