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
Thirty motorhomes for Wilcannia to help residents isolate during COVID outbreak
Callum Marshall, Bill Ormonde and Andrew Schmidt ABC (No paywall)Thirty motorhomes will be set up in Wilcannia in far-west New South Wales to help the community safely isolate during its frightening COVID outbreak. About 10 per cent of the population has now tested positive for COVID, with 77 cases recorded in the town. ... The temporary accommodation option is planned to be operational from September 6 and will be located at the council-owned campervan site in Wilcannia. Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the site had access to power, water and waste disposal.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-01/wilcannia-covid-outbreak-…
# Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Short-term holiday letting, State Government.Social housing tenant’s cry for help: Get me out of this ‘hellhole’ flat
Anna Tims The Guardian (No paywall)Constance Baker feels she takes her life into her hands when she uses her bathroom. In June, following three years’ of leaks, the ceiling collapsed, showering the units with debris. Now, when she uses the lavatory, or takes a bath, she has to protect herself from water drizzling from the flat above. The Kent flat is owned and managed by London & Quadrant (L&Q), one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and she says that years of unresolved damp and defects have led her to contemplate suicide. The 60-year-old, who is bipolar, was moved to the property in 2018 after leaving a women’s refuge, also run by L&Q, and claims it was damp from the outset. [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/aug/29/social-housing-ten…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Mould.Pets in apartments: Owners can be slugged with costs and restrictions
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)While pet lovers can no longer be banned from bringing their dog or cat into their apartment building to live, they can still be slugged as much as $300 for the privilege, a NSW tribunal has ruled. They can also be forbidden from stopping to pick up their mail while in the lobby with their pet and from having a friend with a pet visit them – unless they’ve already applied for, and been given, permission by their owners corporation. The landmark judgment by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) means that other apartment buildings throughout the state will be free to impose similar strict conditions on pet owners.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/pets-in-apartments-can-be-slugged…
# Legal significance NSW, Strata.How to fix social housing’s repair problem
Nathaniel Barker Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... As she stands and looks around her housing association flat, Louise Plunkett begins to cry. Mouse and rat droppings litter every surface. The air is rank with the stench of vermin. She has put all her belongings in bags and boxes to try to protect them, but in vain; the pests have been through everything. “I just can’t take it anymore,” she repeats ... Ms Plunkett is yet another social housing tenant who has turned to the media over unacceptable conditions in her home. ... [Darren Hartley, chief executive of TAROE Trust, the tenants’ charity says:] "It was inevitable with the watering-down of regulation, the imbalanced shift to only proactive economic regulation, and various policies that reduce funding for genuinely affordable housing, that standards of some landlords would slip and investment in existing stock could reduce due to the heavy emphasis on generating new supply from reduced capital funding”. ... Take ageing housing stock, put it under huge strain, prioritise development and digitalisation, reduce the income flowing in amid limited regulatory oversight, and you end up with problems – some of the government’s making, some less so. That is without even touching on those ever-lurking insidious issues of social housing stigma and racism.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/how-to-fix-social-housin…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Federal Government, Housing market.Aussie home values surge 18 per cent, but can it last?
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australian home values rose 1.5 per cent in August, according to data released today by CoreLogic. They are now up 18.4 per cent over the past year – the fastest annual pace of growth since the late 1980s. ... So, why are prices rising so fast? Can it last? And what hope is there for first time buyers looking to get into the market? Business reporter Clancy Yeates joins Jess Irvine to discuss.
https://www.smh.com.au/please-explain/aussie-home-values-surge-1…
# Audio Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.NI government extends longer eviction notice periods until May 2022
Nathaniel Barker Inside Housing (Paywall)Amid the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislation requiring private landlords to give tenants a 12-week notice period before seeking a court order to begin eviction proceedings. Previously, renters in the region were only entitled to a four-week notice period – half the standard in the rest of the UK. The longer notice period rules were due to expire on 30 September, but communities minister Deirdre Hargey today announced that they will stay until 4 May 2022 following a review.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/ni-government-extends-…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Delay to removal of flammable cladding from NSW apartment buildings
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A state government project to remove flammable cladding from apartment towers has been put on hold until next year, with the NSW Building Commissioner blaming the COVID-19 lockdown for the delay. Some 239 apartment buildings – most of which are in Sydney – housing thousands of residents have been deemed high-risk and are under orders to remove combustible cladding.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/delay-to-removal-of-flammabl…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Understanding discrimination effects in private rental housing
Sophia Maalsen, Peta Wolifson, Dallas Rogers, Jacqueline Nelson and Caitlin Buckle AHURI (No paywall)A new report released today, undertaken by researchers from The University of Sydney examines discrimination across age, gender, race and indigeneity in existing policy, law and practice in Australia’s private rental sector, including the impact of informal tenancies and the increasing role of digital technologies. The research finds there is a growing number of informal and shared tenancies, increasing the potential for discrimination. Informal tenants have few renter’s rights and those in share-housing can also face discrimination by other tenants, including via little-regulated digital technologies. The report also examines the role of digital housing technologies in mediating discrimination across the rental system. At present, they reflect the power imbalance between landlords and tenants, however international examples show they can be used to support tenants. You can read the full report at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/363/_nocache?utm_source=ZohoCampaigns&utm_campaign=AHURI+News_+Maaslen+363_+01.09.2021&utm_medium=email]
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKKWxdNWwjSxhjD…
# Research alert Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Share houses, Housing market, Older people, Race and ethnicity, Women.