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
Donald Trump turns to Supreme Court after $400m White House ballroom project blocked
ABC (No paywall)A federal appeals court has ordered Donald Trump's administration to stop construction on a $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing, dealing the Republican leader a major setback in a case testing his presidential authority. "Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House," and could not fundamentally reshape it without congressional approval, the Washington-based US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1 opinion on Friday, local time.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-08/brk-us-court-halts-trump-…
# Hot topic International, .Is social housing policy failing NZ families trying to move from renting to home ownership?
Simon Louis Opit The Conversation (No paywall)The government’s recent NZ$69 million investment in the contestable Flexible Fund, the main funding source for iwi and community housing providers, prioritises social housing and affordable rentals. While the investment is welcome, the policy risks overlooking another role these organisations can play: helping working renters move towards home ownership. These households sit in the difficult middle of the housing system. They earn too much for social housing, but are unable to save a deposit or buy on the open market.
https://theconversation.com/is-social-housing-policy-failing-nz-…
# International, .This Silent Comedy-Horror Is Taking on New Zealand’s Rental Crisis
Conor Lochrie Rolling Stone (No paywall)Every year, another sorry ordeal. 2017, when the landlord said he couldn’t come to inspect the exceedingly worrisome mould growth because he’d “moved to Lanzarote.” 2021, when a flatmate’s friend squatted in the living room for three months, chain-smoking cigarettes, but the landlord wouldn’t remove them. 2026, when the bond was returned three months late because the landlord “forgot” to attach the tenancy form to an email...
https://au.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/the-ungrateful…
# Video International, .Seattle City Council bans ‘junk’ rental fees
Jessica Fu The Seattle Times (No paywall)The Seattle City Council voted to ban most types of rental fees on Tuesday — a move welcomed by tenants’ advocates, who argue that tacked-on charges make housing more expensive and obscure its true costs to renters. Tuesday’s bill requires landlords to disclose all mandatory and optional fees upfront in home listings or ads. The ordinance will take effect July 1, 2027. It allows but limits the mandatory fees that landlords can charge to certain application screening fees, move-in fees, utility fees, and security and pet damage deposits, among a handful of others.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/seattle-city-council-bans-…
# International, .Tory plan to ban foreign nationals from social housing condemned as ‘divisive’
Caroline Davies The Guardian (No paywall)Plans to ban foreign nationals from social housing under a Conservative government have been condemned as “divisive”. Under proposals revealed on Friday, the party said about 230,000 homes would become available if foreign nationals were prevented from accessing social housing. Ending new tenancies for all foreign nationals, as well as current tenancies for couples where neither person is a UK, Irish or EU citizen with settled status, would free up an estimated 228,144 homes for British families, the party said. Under the plans, tenants in England who do not qualify for the housing would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/07/tory-plan-ban-fo…
# International, Public and community housing.Accessing housing 'the exception' at present: VACCA warns of disproportionate barriers for kids leaving care
Jarred Cross National Indigenous Times (No paywall)First Nations Victorians represent around one per cent of the state's population, but around 14 per cent of those accessing specialist homelessness services. Among those most at risk are Aboriginal children and young people leaving out-of-home care, VACCA (Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency) warns. "For most young Aboriginal people leaving care, there are no real housing options, and little planning for what comes next," VACCA chief executive Aunty Muriel said on Monday. "Accessing housing should be the norm. Right now, it's the exception."
https://nit.com.au/04-08-2026/25737/accessing-housing-should-be-…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters.Affordable housing: what's the right price?
Alistair Sisson Substack (No paywall)Last month I travelled to Vienna to attend a conference. I also had the privilege of spending a few days looking at the city’s social housing, guided by Beatrix Stambuk-Torres from The Urban Commons. While I was there the ABC published its investigation into Australia’s affordable housing system—an increasingly marketized and financialised system with rents often just slightly below market rates and only for a limited time period. Affordable housing, the ABC declares, is not really affordable, because rents are more than 30% of household income. This is an increasingly common criticism.
https://moresocialhousing.substack.com/p/affordable-housing-what…
# Australia, .https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a-universal-public-housing-system-for-a-divided-australia,21371
Rob Powell Independent Australia (No paywall)In ‘The monoculture myth at the heart of Hansonism’, I argued that economic insecurity can be redirected towards migrants and minorities, converting class pain into culture war. In ‘Why inequality survives democratic politics’, I argued that aspiration encourages workers and renters to identify with the property owners they hope to become, while identifiable private losses remain politically stronger than uncertain public gains. So what is “a” solution?
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/a-uni…
# Australia, Public and community housing.