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
Apparent Humanity Hater The Supreme Court Lifts the Eviction Moratorium
Harron Walker (No paywall)The Supreme Court has struck down the moratorium on evictions that the Biden administration put in place a few weeks ago. In a divided ruling neatly split along party lines, the conservative-majority court lifted the eviction moratorium on the grounds that it did not come into being through legislative action, Bloomberg reports. The six rightwing justices also took issue with the federal law invoked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to impose the moratorium, which, like its predecessors, was intended to address the economic recession and mass layoffs produced by the coronavirus pandemic as well as to curb the spread of covid-19 itself. “Congress was on notice that a further extension [of the previous eviction moratorium, which expired on July 31,] would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” reads the Supreme Court’s unsigned eight-page opinion, per CNN. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it.” Stephen Breyer dissented ... “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” he wrote, per Bloomberg. “That figure is the highest it has been since at least last winter.” (Jezebel)
https://jezebel.com/apparent-humanity-hater-the-supreme-court-li…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Brisbane community gardeners rally against proposed housing development, 'gentrification' of city suburb
Edwina Seselja ABC (No paywall)A West End community garden group brandished pitchforks, rakes and placards in a peaceful march through the inner Brisbane suburb to protest a development proposal that would encroach on the state-owned veggie patch and see the existing housing on the adjoining property demolished. ... Wicks said the protest was about more than the garden and was part of an effort to resist "mass gentrification" in the suburb at a time where the cost of housing was rising. "The reason we are resisting this development is because they are going to be demolishing really affordable apartments and replacing them with luxury apartments that will house less people," they said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/brisbane-community-garden…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.San Francisco luxury tower still sinking even as engineers work on $100m fix
Dani Anguiano The Guardian (No paywall)San Francisco’s notorious sinking luxury high-rise is still sinking, even amid a $100m project designed to fix the issue. Work to reinforce the foundation of Millennium tower in the city’s downtown came to a halt this week, after engineers found the building had sunk 1in in the months since work began. Engineers were working on reinforcing the foundation of the tower to prevent additional tilting and sinking. The 58-story tower, the tallest residential building in San Francisco, has drawn joking comparisons to the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, by 2014, it had sunk 18in and was leaning 14in to the west.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/san-francisco-mi…
# International, Strata, Minimum habitability standards.Record number of mortgages discharged and registered in NSW in 2021
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The number of people discharging their mortgage in NSW has hit an all-time high as locked-down homeowners use their savings to pay off their mortgages, refinance their home loans to a cheaper deal or trade in their homes, new figures reveal.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/record-number-of-mortgages-discha…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.How Canberra's COVID-19 lockdown is impacting the capital's property market
Isaac Nowroozi ABC (No paywall)Cracking into Canberra's property market was already a struggle, but the current lockdown has made buying a home even more difficult. From yesterday, lockdown restrictions relaxed for real estate companies, who are now allowed to have one person attend a property to conduct inspections, film or take photographs to help progress a sale.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/act-how-covid-19-is-affec…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Experts say public housing the key element to stop ex-prisoners re-offending
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)It happens about 65,000 times a year in Australia: A prisoner is discharged from jail or prison. When they're released, fewer than half expect to head to a home or an apartment of their own. About a third of offenders enter prison after being homeless. For others, the prospects of finding and affording a rental as an ex-prisoner are slim. ... A new report has found there's a simple way to give ex-prisoners ... a better chance to stay out of jail: public housing. Check the report at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/361/_nocache?utm_source=ZohoCampaigns&utm_campaign=AHURI%20News_%20Martin%20358_%2019.08.2021&utm_medium=email]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-23/public-housing-key-elemen…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Health, Housing market.Outasite: Land Lease Communities Magazine Issue 7 July 2021
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)This issue includes the following articles:
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Review overview
Reckless retaliation?
Community by definition
Damage, loss and abandonment
Unstable ground
Local government complications
An independent voice
Interference with sale of home
Age restriction rule allowed
Retirement upheaval update
Contempt
David vs Goliath
Palm Lake Resort appeal dismissed
https://files.thenoticeboard.org.au/outasite/2021-Outasite-7-fin…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Campaigns and law reform.Rent controls to be introduced after deal between politicians
Graham Norwood (No paywall)From Scotland ... Rent controls are to be introduced into part of the UK as a result of a deal between two political parties. The Scottish National Party fell just short of an overall majority in the last elections to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, with 64 MSPs; so now it has entered into a pact with the Green Party, which was seven MSPs and which will give the combined forces a easy majority on major issues. In a document outlining issues with the support of both parties, published over the weekend, it says an objective of the Scottish Government will be to “implement an effective national system of rent controls, enhance tenants’ rights” as well as delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032". (Letting Agent Today) You may wish to check out the report dated June 2018 from Shelter Scotland at: [https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_library/rent_regulation_review]
https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2021/8/rent-co…
# International, Eviction, Rent.