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
The Promises and Failures of the “Cancel Rent” Movement
Cea Weaver (No paywall)Eighteen months ago, COVID-19 forced millions of people to reckon with a long-standing crisis of housing insecurity in the United States. Before the pandemic, millions of people could not afford their housing costs: 75% of low income families were paying more than half their income on rent, and just 1 in 4 people who needed public rent relief received it. By the fall of 2020, as many as 43% of the nation’s renters were at risk of eviction. It was in this context that the demand to “Cancel Rent” rippled across the country. And in New York, the housing movement was well prepared. Less than a year earlier, in June 2019, we had defeated the most powerful lobby in New York State, winning sweeping tenant protections — the strongest in the country — and expanding rent regulations for the first time in decades. In 2020, facing a deadly pandemic and an attendant economic crisis, the campaign to Cancel Rent animated hundreds of protests, rallies, and the largest coordinated rent strike in decades. But despite this historic mobilization and the horrifying proportions of the crisis, New York State did not “cancel rent.” Instead, the State passed the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) — a temporary program to distribute $2.7 billion in federal money to landlords for COVID-19 back-rent. So far, the program has distributed a paltry number of checks, and forces tenants and landlords to spend about two hours to apply — if they’re not blocked by myriad technical glitches. (New York Focus)
https://www.nysfocus.com/2021/07/30/cancel-rent-promises-failure…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market.Update on COVID-19 Public Health Orders
(No paywall)Check out 'Inspections and entry to rental properties; and more here (The Letterbox)
https://comms.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6100f5d944f4e79…
# Hot topic NSW, Privacy and access, Rent, Repairs, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Eviction Freeze Set to Lapse as Biden Housing Aid Effort Lags
Glenn Thrush, Matthew Goldstein and Conor Dougherty The New York Times (No paywall)A nationwide moratorium on residential evictions is set to expire on Saturday after a last-minute effort by the Biden administration to win an extension failed, putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter, while tens of billions in federal funding intended to pay their back rent sit untapped. The expiration was a humbling setback for President Biden, whose team has tried for months to fix a dysfunctional emergency rent relief program to help struggling renters and landlords. Running out of time and desperate to head off a possible wave of evictions, the White House abruptly shifted course on Thursday, throwing responsibility to Congress and prompting a frenzied — and ultimately unsuccessful — rescue operation by Democrats in the House on Friday. The collapse of those efforts reflected the culmination of months of frustration, as the White House pushed hard on states to speed housing assistance to tenants — with mixed results — before the moratorium expired. Hampered by a lack of action by the Trump administration, which left no real plan to carry out the program, Mr. Biden’s team has struggled to build a viable federal-local funding pipeline, hindered by state governments that view the initiative as a burden and the ambivalence of many landlords. As a result, the $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program, to date, disbursed only $3 billion — about 7 percent of what was supposed to be a crisis-averting infusion of cash. Also, check out the same story in The Guardian entitled: 'Eviction crisis looms after Biden and Congress fail to extend Covid ban' at [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/31/eviction-moratorium-ends-biden-congress-covid-ban-democrats-republicans] Again, check out Richard Luscombe's article in The Guardian entitled: 'Evictions crisis: Ocasio-Cortez says Democrats cannot blame Republicans' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/01/evictions-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-democrats-blame-republicans]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/politics/eviction-moratori…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.COVID-19: Lockdown support for Greater Sydney tenants
(No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force for Greater Sydney and have been extended for at least another four weeks until Saturday, 28 August. Here’s what you need to know about the lockdown and where to get tenancy support.
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Privacy and access, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.COVID has deepened the 'housing crisis' in Indigenous communities, and residents are speaking out
Isabella Higgins ABC (No paywall)Lockdowns are tough no matter where you live, but staying at home when there's four generations under one roof can be especially difficult. For some Indigenous communities around the country, this has been the common story of the pandemic, with residents speaking out about the enormous challenges they've faced. ... Indigenous leaders say the pandemic has deepened a long-running "housing crisis" in communities, and have called for urgent investment. ... It's estimated about one in five Indigenous Australians are living in a crowded home, and more than 34 per cent are in remote areas, according to the latest census data. ... The housing shortage was only one part of the problem, with many of the current stock in Indigenous communities requiring serious maintenance and repairs, Ms Oscar said. About 29 per cent of Indigenous people were living in a dwelling with a major structural problem, according to a 2019 analysis by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/covid-restrictions-highli…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Rent controls are becoming a highly divise issue in Europe
(No paywall)Rent controls are becoming increasingly popular in many European nations, but experts note that they rarely solve housing crises on their own and can even scare investors away. Rent controls are government policies, whether on local or a national level, that aim to cap house price increases. They are intended to keep housing affordable, at least for the most vulnerable parts of a population. However, the policy has its critics. In Sweden, for example, rent controls effectively toppled the government there. In Germany, the matter was subject to a year-long legal battle. Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Ireland have all had similar discussions about their property markets. (International Union of Tenants News)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/rent-controls-are-becoming-a-high…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing market.Research suggests ending eviction moratoriums led to spikes in COVID cases and deaths
Brad Smith (No paywall)Freom the United States ... Research by a UCLA-led team has determined that the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths from the disease both increased dramatically after states lifted eviction moratoriums that had been in place to protect people who were struggling to make rent payments during the pandemic. The study found that the number of COVID-19 cases doubled and the number of deaths attributable to the disease increased fivefold, in the four-month period after eviction moratoriums expired. (UCLA Newsroom)
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ending-eviction-moratoriums-i…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health.Homeownership can bring out the worst in you
Jerusalem Demsas (No paywall)From the United States ... It’s the biggest thing you might ever buy. And it could be turning you into a bad person. ... Homeownership, as it has evolved in the United States, often turns its beneficiaries against progress and change, manifesting as anything from opposing homeless shelters in your neighborhood to blocking transit projects in your region. This identity transcends partisanship, a rarity in our polarized age. You’ll find Democrats and Republicans alike screaming opposition to change and growth, no matter what it costs. To that end, Republicans have supported onerous regulations they would likely scoff at in the abstract, and Democrats have defended a system that has perpetuated the racial and economic segregation they often rail against in theory. What can help explain this phenomenon? ... Homeownership is supposed to mean security, opportunity, and a sense of investment in your community. But often, the pressure of tying your family’s financial security to one asset incentivizes homeowners to behave selfishly and antisocially, opposing important public works that could provide significant public benefits. (Vox)
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22597947/homeowner-nimby-affordabl…
# International, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.