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Pathways and choice in a diversifying social and affordable housing system

Summary

This project charted the range of pathways into and within the current Australian social and affordable housing system. It developed a better understanding of the various ways by which people in different places and with different abilities, desires and needs, access social and affordable housing.

Project Number: 70615
Research Theme: Public_and_community_housing, Housing_affordability
Project Leader: Easthope, Hazel
Funding Year: 2010
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Description

The study involved interviewing a sample of 60 recently housed social housing tenants in three states. While not representative of the total population of social housing tenants in Australia, the qualitative analysis involved identified a number of common patterns across the states. These include the present need for more social housing, apparent barriers in the process of applying for social housing, and similar patterns of mobility (or immobility) within the social housing system itself.

The study suggests that pathways into social housing are shaped by a combination of low income and a range of additional underlying risk factors, crisis triggers, social housing application barriers and enablers, and the assessment outcomes once an application has been received.

Policy responses to these issues should include:

• a greater diversity of programs (e.g. long-term and short-term private rental subsidies, or private rental brokerage)
• enabling greater choice and mobility within the social housing sector
• completing and refining service integration initiatives, and to improve coordination with external support, advocacy and referral organisations.

AHURI events involving this project

• The changing structure of housing markets — Sydney, Tue 19 June 2012

More Information

Positioning Paper: No. 137: Pathways and choice in a diversifying social housing system
805 KB PDF Document

Final Report: No. 186: Pathways into and within social housing
1.6 MB PDF Document