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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Homelessness is a driver of poor health in Australia – so why not make housing part of healthcare?
Ehsan Noroozinejad The Guardian (No paywall)Picture a GP clinic in western Sydney. Nadia*, 34, is back for her third script of the year. She started getting panic attacks after her landlord hiked the rent several times. Each time she feared the next eviction notice would push her, her partner and two kids into homelessness. The doctor adjusts her dose, offers a mental-health plan, but there’s something else that could also help Nadia – access to secure and affordable housing. The data is now overwhelming: a recent rental affordability index labelled every capital city in Australia “critically unaffordable” for anyone on the minimum wage in 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/15/homelessne…
# Must read Australia, .Nine homes in three years: Australia’s rental crisis laid bare
Amelia Swan news.com.au (No paywall)Jess Preston was just 17 when she moved into her first rental – an arrangement so dodgy her landlord insisted on cash-only payments, banned cooking indoors and ultimately faced the tribunal after Ms Preston took legal action. “I was young so I didn’t know these weren’t things that were not OK to have as a condition,” Ms Preston said. After escaping an unsafe home as a teenager, Ms Preston, now 22 and studying at university in Canberra, has moved nine times in just three years, spending part of that time in shelters and on the streets.
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/nine-homes-in-three-ye…
# Australia, .Five changes domestic violence experts say could make the Northern Territory safer for women
Grace Atta ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory has the highest rates of family and domestic violence in Australia, with a rate of intimate partner homicide seven times the national average. With just a handful of DV shelters — including some that can turn away up to 200 women each month — the ABC asked experts in the sector how the territory could become a safer place for women, children and families. Those on the front line know there are no quick fixes, especially in a jurisdiction where cultural diversity, remoteness and significant disadvantage add to the challenges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/five-ways-the-northern-te…
# Must read Australia, Domestic violence.Black people in England four times as likely to face homelessness, study finds
Jessica Murray The Guardian (No paywall)Black people in England are almost four times as likely to face homelessness as white people and substantially less likely to get social housing, according to the first major study into homelessness and racism in more than two decades. A three-year research project by academics at Heriot-Watt University found that ethnicity affects a person’s risk of homelessness, even when controlling for factors such as geography, poverty and home ownership rates.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/11/race-homelessnes…
# Must read International, Discrimination.Green housing advocates celebrate no roll back of insulation standards
Eloise Gibson Radio NZ (No paywall)Green housing advocates are celebrating the end of plans to lower insulation standards. Green Building Council head Andrew Eagles said the decision to save the standards meant 30,000 additional whānau would be in healthier, warmer homes each year. RNZ revealed last year that building and construction minister Chris Penk wanted to roll back insulation standards that saved a new home an estimated 40 percent on heating. Some builders had told Penk the new standards had forced up insulation costs by $40,000-$50,000 but he later acknowledged independent advice did not back that up.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/565968/green-housing-advoca…
# International, .Vienna has been declared a renters’ utopia – here’s why
Justin Kadi The Guardian (No paywall)When it comes to best-practice examples in the housing debate, Vienna is a common reference. Indeed, the Austrian capital features prominently in narratives about successful housing policies. An article in the Observer concluded that Vienna shows “decent homes for all” is not an impossible dream. And the New York Times even declared it “a renters’ utopia”. A considerable part of the attraction of Vienna relates to its large social-housing stock. It accounts for some 43% of the roughly 1m housing units in the city. About half of it is municipally owned council housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/10/housing-cr…
# International, Public and community housing.BLOG: 5 REASONS WHY THE UK SHOULD IMPLEMENT RENT CONTROLS
Homes for Us (No paywall)It’s a widely accepted fact that the private rented sector is in crisis — with a key driver being the affordability of housing. There are 4.6 million households renting privately in England and a significant amount of them are being forced to pay over a third of their income on rent. These excessive rents mean families are often being priced out of their homes, left unable to afford other essentials like food and clothing, or forced to accept poor quality and even dangerous conditions. In the long term, we need more council homes to ensure everyone has a safe, secure and accessible place to lay the foundations of a good life.
https://homesforus.org.uk/latest-news/5-reasons-why-the-uk-shoul…
# Hot topic International, Rent.‘They lump us all together’: van-dwellers and homeowners clash over life near Bristol Downs
Tom Wall The Guardian (No paywall)Lee James is cowering in the rusting Mercedes Sprinter van he calls home. He is worried sick by the growing campaign to evict van-dwellers like him from historic parkland in the wealthy north-west of Bristol. “I’m not in the greatest headspace today … I wouldn’t have anywhere to go [if I was evicted] … this is my home,” he said in the gloomy interior. “I just wish there was more kindness.” Last week, residents from the neighbourhoods surrounding the Bristol Downs, where house prices and average incomes are among the highest in the city, lobbied the Green-led council to remove the 60 to 100 vans and caravans in the park.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/15/van-dwellers-hom…
# Must read International, Discrimination, Rent.