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
‘I just want what everyone else has’: what homeless people told Jennifer Kavanagh about their lives
John Harris The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom, a book review from June of this year ... On a damp Tuesday lunchtime at the north end of Regent Street, George is working his beat as one of one of London’s Big Issue sellers. I have not come to interview him, but his experience is so relevant to what I will be talking about for the next two hours that I feel duty-bound to ask him about his life, and how things have been in the past 15 months. When he is not in the centre of the city, he tells me, he lives in a hostel for homeless people near Canary Wharf, five or six miles to the east. “Lockdown was hard,” he says, “’cos I couldn’t sell the magazine, and I needed to pay rent to the hostel. And the isolation was really difficult: a little room, and I had to pretty much stay in there, and only go out for, like, an hour a day. I went for weeks on end not speaking to anyone.” Does he have family? “No, no. Not in London. My parents are dead; my brother and sister are abroad. One in Canada, one in Australia. So it’s been isolating, you know?”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/09/i-just-want-what…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Personal stories.Your home can harm your health — and you're more likely to be at risk if you rent
Stephen Smiley, Ange Lavoipierre and Scott Mitchell ABC (No paywall)As many as 1 million Australians live in housing that harms their health, according to Rebecca Bentley, who is the director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, and it's renters who suffer the most. ... [Rebecca Bentley, Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing] said some of the health-harming problems found in homes included damp and mould, which could affect up to a quarter of housing stock in Australia, and there were other things people might not even realise were harming their health. "We know that living in cold housing for a period of time has an effect on people's respiratory health, their mental health and cardiovascular disease, and we know that these are all major contributors to the burden of disease in Australia."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-22/renting-home-can-be-harm-…
# Australia, Rent, Health, Housing market, Mould.NSW takes aim at capital gains tax breaks for property investors in bid to help first-home buyers
Tom Lowrey ABC (No paywall)The New South Wales government has taken aim at controversial tax breaks for property investors, suggesting they are pushing first home buyers out of an increasingly competitive property market. In a submission to a federal inquiry on housing affordability, the state government is suggesting the federal government review the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount. It has also said the government should consider adopting something similar to an abandoned Labor policy to try and address the imbalance. It argued the discount — which provides a major tax break for those selling properties they have owned for 12 months or more — pushes first home buyers out to advantage investors.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-22/nsw-capital-gains-ax-chan…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Government pledges £65m to help vulnerable renters in arrears in England
PA Media The Guardian (No paywall)Vulnerable renters who have fallen into arrears during the pandemic will be helped with a £65m support package this winter, the government has announced. However, organisations representing landlords and people at risk of homelessness said the money will not be enough to help everyone struggling, and called for the government to go further. The funding is in addition to a £500m package announced in September to help families struggling to afford food, energy, water and other essentials. This, too, was described as insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge facing low-income families as living costs rise. ... Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of Crisis, said: “We of course welcome this funding that should help keep some of those most at risk of homelessness off the streets this winter. It is now vital councils use this funding to help people most at risk of losing their home. “But with almost a million households across the UK in rent arrears and the cost of living rising rapidly, it is impossible for this funding to meet the demand we face. To prevent homelessness in the first place, we desperately need the UK government to ensure that housing benefit covers the true cost of renting
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/23/government-pledg…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Landlords and agents.Pandemic boom: House price surge stokes affordability worries
Matt wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When you ask Sydneysiders what worries them most you might expect health or unemployment to top the list considering the Delta outbreak and its devastating effects on the economy. But we’ve got an even bigger bugbear: housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/pandemic-boom-house-…
# NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market.The Simplest Fix to America’s Rent Problem
Rachel Cohen (No paywall)From the United States ... In an obscure but public meeting last week, local and federal housing officials discussed a controversial idea that could transform U.S housing policy: What if the government gave money directly to renters, rather than relying on a complicated voucher system that drives both tenants and landlords up the wall? You’ve heard of universal basic income. What about universal basic rent? (The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/10/universal-b…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government.As WA's public housing waitlist ballooned, department spent a fraction of funds, report finds
Evelyn Manfield and Abby Richards ABC (No paywall)Across a nine-month period when WA was suffering from public housing and affordable rental shortages, just 2 per cent of a budget allocated to build new social housing and refurbish existing ones was spent, a [WA Auditor-General} report has found. ... Shelter WA chief executive Michelle MacKenzie said the figures were concerning. "We know that there are desperate people in need of social housing," she said. "But we're really pleased that the new minister (WA Housing Minister John Carey) has got his eye attuned to this problem ... ".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-21/fraction-of-social-housin…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.Tiny houses could add to housing mix amid affordability crisis, but legal changes needed: experts
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Tiny houses could play a greater role in the nation’s housing mix and offer an alternative to those struggling with high prices and rents if small legal changes were introduced, experts say. Although tiny houses – micro-dwellings that are often set on wheels and cleverly designed to maximise space – have drawn plenty of enthusiasm, potential residents can be put off by the legal grey area they occupy. The dwellings are not in themselves a solution to the housing affordability crisis, and their proponents freely admit tiny living is not for everyone. But they have the potential to house people at risk of homelessness, seniors looking for a granny-flat equivalent next to family, young people facing high rents or house prices, women going through a separation late in life, or minimalists looking to tread more lightly on the earth.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tiny-houses-could-add-to-housing-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market, Older people, Young people.