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
House prices take a breath as affordability crunch bites
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property price growth is slowing as more people who would like to buy are priced out of the market. If the trend continues, price growth could continue to slide and may even start to fall by 2023.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/house-prices-take-a-breat…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Former bankrupt chicken killers put aged care business into administration
Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An aged care business founded by two bankrupt brothers convicted of shocking animal cruelty has been placed into voluntary administration just days before it was required to return deposits to families of former residents. ... The brothers used aliases, dummy directors and a family trust to conceal their roles with Chronos Care, while also funnelling funds from the business to pay for their mortgages, holidays and luxury cars.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/former-bankrupt-chicken…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Older people.Extra green space – and apartments – approved for Roma Street Parklands
Tony Moore The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Queensland government has approved extra parkland, as well as four new apartment blocks, for the extension to the 11-hectare Roma Street Parklands. This follows concerns earlier this year, when residents of Roma Street apartments raised concerns about the impact of the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project on the parklands. Brisbane City Council city planning chair Krista Adams described the outcome as “a victory for residents” after 34,000 people signed an online petition objecting to the state government’s original proposal.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/extra-green-space-and…
# Australia, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.New inner-city building guide tightened to ease tower fears
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Inner-city councillors have moved to clarify development guidelines that stoked fears of 14-storey apartment blocks towering over some of Melbourne’s best-known shopping strips.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/new-inner-city-building…
# Australia, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Innovative Housing First homelessness strategy faces regional WA housing shortage hurdle
Georgia Loney and Zoe Keenan ABC (No paywall)A long-awaited program that was intended to be a 'game-changer' in tackling homelessness in regional Western Australia is being hampered by an acute shortage of social housing. The $9.4 million program started in Perth and Bunbury in June with the aim of funding caseworkers to provide intensive support to find suitable housing for people without a home. But caseworkers say the current housing crisis and an acute shortage of social housing mean it is proving near impossible in the short term. The Housing First strategy aims to find permanent housing tailored to the specific needs of each person, along with support to tackle social issues including drug and alcohol dependency. Service provider Anglicare said the Housing First program was facing a basic challenge of there not being enough suitable social housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-03/housing-first-homelessnes…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, State Government.Renting during the COVID-19 pandemic in Great Britain: the experiences of private tenants
Adriana Mihaela Soaita (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, a set of far reaching emergency measures have been implemented ... Private tenants’ difficulties have been recognized in the COVID-19 policy package, for instance, by temporarily delaying eviction and increasing social assistance. However, even in ‘ordinary’ times, the challenges faced by private tenants are broader and deeper than acknowledged by these emergency measures. ... While private tenants’ plight has been long in the making in the UK and may not be fully addressed in a short timeframe, the COVID-19 crisis invites us to reevaluate the role of the PRS in the housing system and the extent to and the means by which it (can) deliver good, secure and affordable homes. [You may wish to skip to 'Chapter 6. Conclusions'.] (UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence)
https://www.thinkhouse.org.uk/site/assets/files/2405/cache0621.p…
# Research alert International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Tenant News
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest stories from Tenant News ... Lockdown safety net: our analysis; Renters' Guide to COVID – updated; Access during lockdown; Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues; Young renters: We hear you!; A day in the life of a Tenant Advocate; and lots more news
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=29c79d2825cb376b3f0b06385&id…
# Must read NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform.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.