Lone parents, social well being and housing assistance

Summary

Sole parents in receipt of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) and in public housing are quite different in socio-demographic profile. The fact that CRA and public housing provide very different forms of housing assistance leads to problems of high mobility rates and housing affordability difficulties for private renters, whilst access to employment opportunities is more problematic for public tenants.


Project Number: 50012
Research Theme: Social_Wellbeing
Project Leader: Burke, Terry
Funding Year: 2000
Research Centre: Swinburne-Monash

Description

This study is designed to compare the effect public housing and private rent assistance has on the wellbeing of one of the most significant housing needs groups, sole parents. Sole parent households are one of the most rapidly growing household types. In the majority of cases the sole parent is female and the household income is below average. In some cases sole parent households are a created by a crisis situation, in particular that of domestic violence. The result has been a strong increase in demand for housing assistance from this group whether in the form of public housing or rent assistance. Thus in 1997/98 70 per cent of people applying for public housing were either sole parents or single person households while in 1999 sole parents accounted for 21 per cent of all rent assistance income units (FaCS 1999, Neilson 1999 p3).

While we have considerable anecdotal experience to understand broadly why sole parents require assistance (security, affordability, support) we knew little about why some sole parent households choose public housing and others the rent assistance option, or their longer term housing and lifecycle aspirations. More importantly we knew next to nothing about the shelter and non shelter impacts of the two different forms of assistance on the well-being and behaviour of sole parents (or any other group for that matter). Does one form of assistance attract a very different type of single parent; are there differences in employment situation and opportunity, in family stress, educational participation, and health of the parent and children? Does one form of assistance help more than the other in reconstructing often shattered lives and in facilitating social and economic participation and integration?

This project aimed:

  • to understand the housing assistance choice of sole parents
  • to identify sole parents' perceptions as to the attributes of the different forms of assistance
  • to identify the degree to which there are differences in non shelter (and shelter) outcomes for sole parents receiving different forms of assistance
  • to identify for the two forms of assistance what factors explain any differences in wellbeing or circumstances (if any)
  • to identify housing and housing related barriers to full participation in civic society and the labour market.

More Information

Download now Positioning Paper: No. 006: Lone parents, social wellbeing and housing assistance
365 KB PDF Document

Download now Final Report: No. 015: Sole parents, social wellbeing and housing assistance
256 KB PDF Document

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