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
Financial support for NSW tenants and landlords extended amid lockdown
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Sydney landlords who drop rents for tenants hard hit by the pandemic will be able to access up to another $1500 in financial support amid the city’s ongoing lockdown. Landlords who negotiate a rent discount with impacted tenants – those who have lost at least 25 per cent of their income in lockdown – will be able to access up to a total of $3000 in financial support, or a reduction on their land tax, with the state government’s Residential Tenancy Support package extended for another month. Tenants are also still protected by a 60-day eviction moratorium until September 11, which was announced with the initial $1500 support payment last month. The extension of the support package comes after Sydney entered its eighth week in lockdown and during the first week of a state-wide lockdown for NSW. ... Tenants’ Union of New South Wales chief executive Leo Patterson Ross welcomed the extension of the financial support, saying it was critical as lockdown continued. ... [He said] 'The only weakness with the payments was that the landlords weren’t necessarily obliged to apply for it even if they had an eligible tenant. There had also been a few isolated incidents of landlords trying to get out of passing on the full reduction claimed to tenants.' He also expressed concern that evictions not related to rental arrears in lockdown were still going ahead and stressed an extension of the eviction moratorium and further support could be needed as lockdown continued.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/financial-support-for-nsw-tenants…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.COVID-19: Tenancy support for Victorian tenants
(No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force once again for Victoria and are in place until Thursday, 2 September. If you rent in VIC, here’s where to get tenancy support. (rent.com.au)
# Australia, Eviction, Privacy and access, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Victorian tenant evicted after COVID19 moratorium ends.
ABC (No paywall)The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that landlords can evict tenants for non-payment of rent during the big Victorian lockdown of 2020. It's a ruling that could affect thousands of vulnerable renters. (ABC Law Report)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/13442932
# Legal significance, Audio Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.International students struggling in the private rental sector in Australia prior to and during the pandemic
Alan Morris, Shaun Wilson, Emma Mitchell, Gaby Ramia and Catherine Hastings (No paywall)International students have emerged as a major cohort within Australia’s post-secondary education sector. Despite contributing substantially to the economy and community, they are expected to make their own way in Australia’s expensive private rental market. Drawing on two surveys—one conducted prior to Covid-19 and one fielded during the pandemic—as well as forty semi-structured in-depth interviews, the article examines strategies adopted by students to cope with high rents in Sydney and Melbourne. Drawing on the concept of risk, we argue that international students studying in these two cities must constantly manage the pressures of expensive and unstable rental housing. Access to decent accommodation often depends on finding and maintaining paid employment. Second, students adopt risky strategies to meet housing costs such as sharing bedrooms. These strategies reduce rents but invoke further challenges. Third, we find that due to the loss of paid employment, the Covid-19 pandemic has substantially increased the risks for international students dependent on the private rental sector. (Housing Studies) Also, see previous report discussed at: [https://www.uts.edu.au/news/social-justice-sustainability/how-are-international-students-australia-faring].
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BPBJVRBRE78WGJY4UN7K/full?tar…
# Research alert Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, International, Race and ethnicity, Students.Calls grow for united effort to get homeless Australians vaccinated
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)Homeless and vulnerable people living in central Sydney are rushing to get vaccinated, with almost 4,000 doses administered since a joint clinic was set up in May. Julie Smith, the health services manager at St Vincent de Paul’s Matthew Talbot hostel, said she had seen a dramatic drop in vaccine hesitancy over the past 12 weeks among Sydney’s homeless community as the city was forced into lockdown. ... The clinic is a joint initiative of the St Vincent de Paul Society, St Vincent’s hospital, the Kirketon Road Centre and the City of Sydney, with a weekly clinic running out of Ozanam Learning Centre in Woolloomooloo. ... [A spokesperson for the Department of Health said] individuals experiencing homelessness, sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation were all currently eligible for vaccination, and the vaccination could be accessed through community clinics, GPs, commonwealth vaccination clinics, community pharmacies, Aboriginal community-controlled health services and state and territory clinics.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/19/calls-gro…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.To Improve Rental Assistance, Just Make It Cash Assistance
David Dayen (No paywall)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the La Raza Community Resource Center in the Mission District of San Francisco this week ... [She said] “An initiative isn’t successful unless people take advantage of it.” This has been precisely the problem with the $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance Pelosi and her colleagues authorized in two tranches dating back to last December. As I’ve written, in theory this should be more than enough to account for all rental debt in the country, but barely any of it has gotten out to struggling renters, thanks to a litany of problems inherent in the way the law was written.
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/to-improve-rental-as…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Federal judge denies landlords’ request to block CDC national eviction ban
Annie Nova (No paywall)A federal judge rejected on Friday a request by landlord groups to block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new eviction moratorium. The decision by Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a win for the Biden administration. More than 11 million Americans remain behind on their rent, moving the CDC to issue a new eviction ban earlier this month after its previous one expired on July 31. That protection applies until Oct. 3 and to places where Covid rates remain high. (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/13/us-judge-denies-landlords-reques…
# Legal significance International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.The Hallway, Not Courtroom, Is Where Things Really Get Done At This Eviction Court
Laurel Wamsley (No paywall)At eviction court in Columbus, Ohio, much of the work happens in the hallway just outside the courtroom. That's where tenants find lawyers to represent them, cases are mediated, and deals are struck. ... [Municipal Court Administrative Judge Ted Barrows says] 'Landlords win when tenants don't show. Tenants who do come to court have much better odds due to resources right outside the courtroom. Tables staffed with legal aid attorneys, mediators, social workers and a financial assistance nonprofit line the hallway to help tenants try to stay in their homes or at least not end up homeless.' (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027537471/the-hallway-not-courtr…
# International, Eviction, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.