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
Private rented sector white paper to be published in the spring
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... A “landmark” white paper outlining new regulations for the private rented sector will be published in spring, the government has confirmed. n a separate Levelling Up White Paper, published by ministers today, the government confirmed that its long-awaited proposals outlining changes to the private rented sector will be published within the next few months. ... It will also set out how the government intends to end Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, a pledge that was first made by former prime minister Theresa May in 2019. Ministers said they will also “explore” the idea of a national landlord register and “set out plans for a crackdown on rogue landlords”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/private-rented-sector-…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.What’s wrong with Australian mortgages? They’re fixed for shareholders, not home owners
Richard Holden The Conversation (No paywall)If you’re paying off a mortgage – or aspiring to – imagine if you didn’t have to worry so much about rising interest rates. That’s already the reality for US home buyers. Unlike in Australia, most mortgages in the US have a fixed-interest rate, locked in for 30 years. ... So why don’t Australian lenders offer 30-year fixed-rate mortgages too, like their US counterparts?
https://theconversation.com/whats-wrong-with-australian-mortgage…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, International.NSW, Victoria split on whether retirement communities should be able to ban younger residents
Mark Skelsey (No paywall)Two of Australia’s largest States are at odds when it comes to age restrictions in land lease communities, with NSW set to allow retirement operators to bar younger people becoming residents at the same time that Victoria has outlawed the practice. ... The Tenants’ Union has raised concerns that age restrictions are unjust for younger people who may wish or need to live in the community…and can conflict with (existing laws) which allows a home owner’s spouse or de facto partner, or a home owner’s carer, to have an automatic right of occupation of a residential site. They have suggested that if age restriction rules are to be permitted, clear exemptions should be prescribed to clarify the situation.
https://www.downsizing.com.au/news/1075/NSW-Victoria-split-on-wh…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Discrimination, Land lease communities, Young people.Rents are up more than 30 percent in some cities, forcing millions to find another place to live
Abha Bhattarai (No paywall)From the United States ... Rising rents are expected to be a driving force in inflation this year and have been an ongoing policy challenge for the Biden administration. Kiara Age moved in less than a year ago and now it’s time to move again: Rent on her two-bedroom apartment in Henderson, Nev., is rising 23 percent to nearly $1,600 a month, making it impossibly out of reach for the single mother. ... Rental prices across the country have been rising for months, but lately the increases have been sharper and more widespread, forcing millions of Americans to reassess their living situations. ... he pandemic has exacerbated inequalities in many parts of life, and housing is no different. Homeowners benefited from rock-bottom interest rates and surging home prices, while renters have faced surging costs with little reprieve. (The Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/30/rent-inflatio…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.Stop gaslighting us! Gas is bad, for people and planet
Rose Mary Petrass The Fifth Estate (No paywall)New research has found that gas-burning stove tops are leaking the greenhouse-gas (GHG) equivalent of half a million petrol cars, not to mention the health risk of leaking methane in our homes. Shockingly, more than three quarters of methane emissions from stove tops were leaking into houses while the appliances were not in use.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/stop-gasl…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet, Climate change, Health.Rent rises and record-low vacancy rates lead to long-term hotel stay for Yeppoon family
Katrina Beavan and Paul Culliver ABC (No paywall)When Yeppoon local Brandi Gilligan's rent increased by $120 a week she decided to try her luck finding another rental home more within the family's budget. It seemed like a sensible idea at the time. Ms Gilligan had never experienced obstacles to renting before, her partner had a stable income and the pair had a good rental history. But a statewide housing crisis in regional areas has stopped the family in their tracks. After months of application rejections the family moved into a hotel three weeks ago in a last-ditch effort to avoid homelessness. "We've applied for multiple rentals, and we've been told that there are about 40 to 50 applications per house," Ms Gilligan said. ... Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) chief executive Aimee McVeigh said families like Ms Gilligans' are at the coalface of a statewide housing crisis that has shown no sign of improving in 2022. "Unfortunately, [Ms Gilligan's] really awful story is not a unique story," Ms McVeigh said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-01/regional-queensland-renta…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Personal stories.An End to the Housing Market as We Know It
Jeff Ordower (No paywall)Tenant organizing has been one of the bright spots of organizing during COVID. With families across the country facing evictions, organizers have shut down eviction courts, engaged in on-the-ground defense of tenants facing evictions, and passed significant tenant protection legislation. This past fall, organizers in Saint Paul, Minnesota, won a campaign to pass the strongest rent control initiative in the country, with annual rent increases capped at three percent. (The Forge)
https://forgeorganizing.org/article/end-housing-market-we-know-it
# International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19.Aged care workers are facing a 'crisis level of exhaustion' as the COVID-19 pandemic continues
Ellen Coulter and Laura Kewley ABC (No paywall)Mr Sewell is the chief executive of Warrigal, an aged care provider with 11 homes across New South Wales and the ACT. ... Seeking nurses, Mr Sewell contacted the local public health unit before a 10-day process of filling out paperwork and being bounced between state and federal departments. A Commonwealth case manager eventually found him two nurses, but Mr Sewell says the stress for families and staff who thought their home was going to close in the meantime was "really a big worry". "It's really very frustrating when the assistance is so slow, so sluggish. So bureaucratic," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-03/aged-care-workers-crisis-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people.