02-Nov 2004 Housing and location preferences and choices of people with disabilities
AHURI is to commence a research project to consider the housing options and preferences of people with disabilities.
Where and how we live are shaped by many factors, not only our preferences, but what options are available to us based on our employment situation, our stage of life and our finances. For people with disabilities, add to those factors the constraints and opportunities brought about by the disability itself.
These are the issues being investigated in a major study into the housing and location choices and preferences of people with disabilities.
The study, by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and funded by Supported Housing Limited, and supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Gandel Charitable Trust, will include a major survey of people with a disability. The aim is to enable policies and programs to be developed that are based on an understanding of the needs and preferences of people with disabilities.
To achieve this aim, the project will also engage policy developers and service providers in an advisory group whose integral role includes refining research methodology, providing guidance and specialist knowledge and working through the implications of the research findings for government policy and service provision.
The study is part of a wider program of research by AHURI into the housing and location choices and preferences of the broader Australian community. The research will be led by Associate Professor Andrew Beer, of the AHURI Southern Research Centre, based in South Australia.
He is co-ordinating a program of research to investigate the forces that are changing the ‘housing careers’ of Australians and the implications of that change for government-provided housing assistance and housing policy.
The concept ‘housing career’ refers to the various stages of housing that people typically move through during the course of their lives – from living with parents, to renting, to home ownership. These housing stages traditionally link to a particular stage of the family life cycle. For example, entry to home ownership has generally been associated with marriage and the birth of a first child.
But recent evidence suggests that these links are breaking. The available evidence suggests that the family life course is no longer the main driver of housing careers and that they are now shaped by the interaction between housing opportunities and labour markets. Regional differences in housing careers may also be emerging.
Understanding these changes is vital to enable governments and other service providers to respond effectively. This is particularly important for the provision of services to people with a disability, and makes this research even more important.
The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) is the national applied policy research institute in the field of housing and urban studies. The Institute is a unique partnership between governments and universities that is managed by a professional, independent, research management company (AHURI Ltd).
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