Utah is ending homelessness by giving people homes – Nation of Change

Reprinted from the Nation of Change
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Earlier this month, Hawaii State representative Tom Bower (D) began walking the streets of his Waikiki district with a sledgehammer, and smashing shopping carts used by homeless people. “Disgusted” by the city’s chronic homelessness problem, Bower decided to take matters into his own hands — literally. He also took to rousing homeless people if he saw them sleeping at bus stops during the day.

Read the whole story here.

Documentary special: housing evictions

Tenants'voiceListen to this ABC Radio National documentary on the WA hardline ‘three strikes and you’re out policy’ by clicking this link.  Or read the introduction below.

No-one likes bad neighbours, and West Australia’s hardline three strikes policy to evict troublesome public housing tenants is popular with residents keen to preserve the tranquillity in their streets.Queensland has now embraced its own version of the policy, and there are calls in South Australia for that state to do the same.But in WA there are growing concerns among housing advocates and welfare groups that the hardline approach is having a devastating impact on Indigenous families, forcing many children into homelessness”.  From Perth, Andrew O’Connor reports on three women living with the consequences of eviction.   Listen to the piece here.

Companies spy a way to exploit tenants – Business Spectator

Kim4We think this is a good article. Queensland lead the way introducing protections against the unreasonable practices of tenancy database companies. Now most, if not all states and territories have some form of protection, despite that some companies continually try to find new ways to work around them.

It was Queensland tenant advocates that pushed for these initial protections, not industry. What will happen when the advocates are gone? The market will become skewed and unfair. It’s going to be a rocky road ahead for Qld tenants.

Regional battlers lose another local tenant advice service

Reprinted from the Sunshine Coast Daily online Dec 9

Tenants Union of Queensland Fraser Coast office to close
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TROUBLED tenants on the Fraser Coast will have nowhere to get face-to-face help with closure of the Fraser Coast office of the Tenants Union of Queensland (TUQ).

For 19 years the not-for-profit organisation provided an outreach service from the Maryborough Neighbourhood Centre every Monday, offering advice and assistance to renters. (Read the entire article directly from the website here).