The Tony award winner says ‘Racism and bigots are real’ after being turned down by landlord in Harlem
The Tony award winner Wendell Pierce has alleged that he was denied a rental apartment in New York’s historically Black Harlem neighborhood because he is Black.
“Racism and bigots are real,” the actor posted on X this week. “There are those who will do anything to destroy life’s journey for Black folks. When you deny our personal experiences, you are as vile and despicable.”
Continue reading...California supreme court greenlights project that protesters say will add noise pollution to already dense historic park
A California supreme court ruling will allow student housing at University of California, Berkeley, to be built at the historic People’s Park.
The court on Thursday ruled that a new law enacted in 2023 invalidates the claims by two local organizations that sued the school, saying students living in downtown Berkeley would add noise pollution to an already dense area. The project set off years of protests over the park – a landmark that is a touchstone of counterculture.
Continue reading...Queensland’s capital is second only to Sydney with a median house value of $937,479, as lack of supply bites
For the first time in 25 years, Brisbane is Australia’s second-most expensive city for housing.
The Queensland capital edged out Canberra in May, the latest CoreLogic report shows, with a median house value of $937,479. Sydney continues to have the priciest homes in the country.
Continue reading...Meanwhile, government to rewrite visa cancellation rules after independent tribunal gave non-citizens with serious criminal convictions their visas back. Follow the day’s news live
Andrew Giles was asked why he wasn’t told about what was happening with his directive in the tribunals – why there weren’t meetings to receive updates.
He said there were meetings with his department which were taking place “pretty regularly”.
What has been unacceptable is the fact that these AAT decisions to set aside cancellations that were made under section 99 that were made by this government by my department – we were not advised, I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal.
That’s the issue that I’m deeply concerned about. And that’s what I’m focusing on fixing now.
There are around 30 that I’ve called up as a matter of absolute urgency and they are dealt with through the day and night.
I’m gonna get to the bottom of this – a protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory. As I said, I’m now focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration, I put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened and why.
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WA shooter’s daughter says police ‘ignored’ warnings
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth has been asked about the powerful statement Ariel Bombara released yesterday, claiming Western Australian police had “ignored” warnings from her and her mother that their lives were under threat.
By that point we felt completely helpless and I had to focus on getting mum to safety. I did everything I could to protect my mother, and when my father couldn’t find us he murdered her best friend and her best friend’s daughter.
Rents have surged in Australia’s capital cities, with only 5.9% of city overall rentals now costing less than $400 a week.
At the start of the pandemic, one in five house rentals in Sydney cost less than $400 a week – that figure is now one in 50.
In Melbourne, one in 25 house rentals now costs less than $400.
The national share of rentals available under $400 dropped by one third annually to just 10.4%.
ACT had the smallest share of properties listed to rent under $400 at 2.1%, followed by Sydney (3.8%) and Perth (5.6%).
Melbourne saw the largest annual decline in the share of houses listed for less than $400 a week, followed by Adelaide and Sydney.
In regional markets, only 16.3% per cent of houses were advertised for under $400 a week in April.
Regional WA (14.8%) had the smallest portion of homes listed to rent below $400 of the regions, followed by regional Queensland (15.8%) and regional NSW (21.5%).
Continue reading...KPMG analysis reveals 15,593 dwellings in NSW and 7,897 in Victoria are yet to break ground despite planning approval amid higher cost of materials and finance
Developers have yet to begin work on almost 40,000 new homes across Australia – including 11,170 in Sydney – despite being granted building approvals, with stubbornly high interest rates and construction costs being blamed.
According to KPMG analysis released on Tuesday, 15,593 dwellings with planning approval were yet to break ground across New South Wales by December 2023. It was only a slight improvement on the state’s figures a year earlier, when there were 15,818 approved dwellings across NSW where work was yet to commence.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Data reveals that 77 people died before being offered public housing between April 2019 and March this year
At least one person has died every month before finally being offered public housing in New South Wales, new data has revealed.
Data provided to Guardian Australia after a freedom of information request shows that between April 2019 and March this year, 77 people who had already died were offered housing. This included 12 people in 2020 and 2021, 17 in 2022 and 11 in 2023.
Continue reading...Workplace killings in 2023 revealed hazardous working conditions of migrant farmworkers in Half Moon Bay
The owners of two mushroom farms in northern California where a disgruntled employee shot and killed seven people last year will pay a total of more than $450,000 in back wages and damages to 62 employees.
In an announcement released on Monday following an extensive investigation, the US labor department said the payment is an element of administrative settlements reached by the department’s wage and hour division with California Terra Garden and Concord Farms.
Continue reading...Planning experts are considering areas near Nottingham, Stafford and Northampton for housebuilding drive
Labour’s plan for new towns looks likely to focus on the Midlands as much as England’s overcrowded south-east, with planners already considering areas near Nottingham, Stafford and Northampton, the Guardian understands.
Close to the M1 and M6 motorways, some of the locations have the advantage of being in areas of Labour local political control, giving Keir Starmer’s government a better chance of delivering on its promise to have the first homes built by the end of a first Labour term.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner to promise party will build homes on sites by end of its first term and support private developers
A Labour government would aim to announce the sites for a series of new towns within a year of taking office, with the promise that homes would be built in them by the end of a first term, Angela Rayner is to say in a speech.
Giving more detail to a plan first outlined in Keir Starmer’s party conference speech in October, Rayner will tell a housing conference that Labour will strongly support private developers who create high-quality and affordable housing.
Continue reading...Some borrowers have been abandoned in a cost-of-living crisis and lenders must meet their obligations, the regulator says
Major Australian lenders are not doing enough to support mortgage customers in financial hardship, and in some cases they are ignoring requests for assistance altogether, the corporate regulator has found.
In a major report to be released on Monday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) found that more than one-in-three customers dropped out of a hardship application, a process designed to vary repayments while a borrower gets back on their feet, because of unnecessary barriers.
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Shorten and Dutton clash over reduced migration
Earlier this morning the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, clashed over Dutton’s promise to reduce Australia’s migration intake in his budget reply speech last night.
Well, Bill, a couple of points. One is that we say that, in the first year, 40,000 homes will be freed up. That includes the numbers who would be bidding at auctions this weekend against Australian citizens.
If the government had have adopted our policy over a five-year period, you would free up 325,000 homes. So the number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country.
Continue reading...Opposition leader promised in speech on Thursday to restrict property investment by non-residents
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has criticised the opposition leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech as “unhinged” and lacking in economic credibility, as he set out around Australia to explain the government’s own economic plan.
With parliament now in recess for a week, Chalmers headed to Port Augusta in South Australia with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and SA state and federal colleagues to promote the government’s renewable energy transition agenda, badged as Future Made in Australia.
Continue reading...Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live
Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.
It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.
I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.
Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.
Continue reading...Funds from plan, designed to build treatment centers and clinics, made available early as state grapples with homelessness crisis
California governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that $3.3bn would be made available from the state’s new mental health bond ahead of schedule to build more behavioral health treatment centers and homeless housing as the state grapples with a growing homelessness crisis.
It’s the first pot of money from a ballot measure designed to help cities, counties, tribes and developers build or renovate treatment centers and clinics, among other things. Voters passed it by a razor-thin margin in March after Newsom threw all of his political weight behind it, touting it as linchpin of the state’s efforts to reduce homelessness.
Continue reading...Proposal, condemned by homelessness charities as dehumanising, had provoked threats of revolt among MPs
Ministers will drop plans to criminalise rough sleepers for being deemed a nuisance or having an excessive smell after Conservative MPs threatened a revolt over the proposals.
The plans, originally announced by the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, had been condemned by homeless charities as dehumanising.
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More details on government’s plan to cap international student numbers
The government has released a little more information on its plan to cap international students in a bid to ease housing shortages and clamp down on sub-standard education providers and agents. It will introduce legislation next week which will:
Prevent education providers from owning education agent businesses.
Pause applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months.
Require new providers seeking registration to demonstrate a track record of quality education delivery to domestic students before they are allowed to recruit international students.
Cancel dormant provider registrations to prevent them being used as a market entry tool by unscrupulous actors.
Prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.
Improve the sharing of data relating to education agents.
[The Coalition will announce its] energy policy not at the time of the media’s choosing or at a time of the government’s choosing but a time of the Coalition’s choosing.
But it will be very clear in advance of the next election the way we want to go about opening up a new energy source for Australia. That will deliver emissions free energy and lower energy prices by increasing the mix of types of energy over the long term.
Continue reading...‘There is more than one way to help people who are on income support,’ treasurer says when suggesting rebates and concessions could be boosted
The federal government is poised to expand rebates and concessions available to job seekers in next week’s federal budget, which is also expected to increase rent assistance.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has confirmed that Tuesday’s budget will not increase the jobseeker payment but suggested it would boost concessions linked to social security payments, among a suite of measures designed to offer cost-of-living relief without pushing up inflation.
Continue reading...Unaffordable rents and property prices risk becoming a key political battleground across the continent
Spiralling rents and sky-high property prices risk becoming a key battleground of European politics as far-right and populist parties start to exploit growing public anger over the continent’s housing crisis, experts have said.
Weeks before European parliament elections in which far-right parties are forecast to finish first in nine EU member states and second or third in another nine, housing has the potential to become as potent a driver of far-right support as immigration.
Continue reading...Affording a home has become a political issue as rents and prices soar and supply plummets
Decades in the making, Europe’s housing crisis is being felt from the Netherlands to Portugal, Greece to Germany, and in Britain. Prices and rents have soared, availability and affordability have plunged and housing has become a political issue.
Between 2010 and 2022, property prices across the 27-member bloc surged by 47%, according to a 2023 Eurostat report. In some countries they almost trebled: Estonia recorded a 192% rise. Only in two member states, Italy and Cyprus, did they decline.
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