Research Projects

The project will provide a review of the public health responses to homelessness and the collaboration between public health agencies and homelessness services during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will recommend how engagement between public health and homelessness services can be strengthened into the future.

Lead researcher: Dr Chris Hartley, UNSW Sydney
Project number: 71317

Housing plays an important role in children’s lives in ways that are policy amenable and highly relevant to policy concerns. Yet children are relatively understudied in housing research. This project will investigate the existing evidence and data, and develop a framework for the comprehensive study of children and their homes.

Lead researcher: Dr Amy Clair, University of Adelaide
Project number: 31354

This project examines drivers and barriers of office-to-housing conversion and evaluates its potential to boost sustainable housing supply. It analyses exemplary case studies to identify influencing factors and uses these to assess convertibility of buildings. These investigations are tested through investigative panels and inform an evaluation framework to assist policymaking.

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Sandra Löschke, University of Sydney
Project number: 73365

This project examines the housing aspirations of Australian households. It will provide a critical evidence base to inform the Housing Accord and the innovative solutions needed to address short- and long-term housing aspirations into the future amidst persistent cost-of-living pressures and a growing dual tenure divide between renting and owning.

Lead researcher: Professor Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology
Project number: 51356

This research investigates Australia’s multi-provider social housing systems to assess evolving status, scale, growth, effectiveness, and international and local policy comparators. Drawing on policy review and analysis methods, expert interviews and international comparisons, the project will offer policy develop options to sustain, strengthen and improve Australia’s multi-provider social housing systems.

Lead researcher: Professor Julie Lawson, RMIT University
Project number: 53334

Slow adoption of off-site construction is fundamentally an institutional and behavioural economics phenomenon which has not previously been addressed by engineering or construction research. We identify two housing system barriers to its adoption and propose a five-stage mixed methods research program that will reveal the institutional arrangements constraining OSC growth.

Lead researcher: Professor Chris Leishman, University of South Australia
Project number: 32357

It is critically important for Indigenous Australians to be included in decision-making processes about policies and programs that affect them. With findings drawn from a literature review, expert panel, and consultations, this Investigative Panel will provide new insights into enhanced engagement with Indigenous people and how they can be actioned to inform housing policy and practice.

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Megan Moskos, University of Adelaide
Project number: 31327

Grounded by the lived expertise of unaccompanied children, young people and practitioners who support them, this mixed-method project investigates need, existing service strengths, gaps and opportunities, to produce a typology of best-practice supported accommodation models for unaccompanied children and young people aged 12-24 experiencing or at-risk of homelessness in Australia.

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Catherine Robinson, University of Tasmania
Project number: 41338

This research identifies how collaborative homeownership can be integrated into Australian housing and housing assistance policy. It maps and typologises established/ emergent Australian collaborative homeownership models; examines community motivations and resident outcomes; identifies financial, governance and regulatory requirements and barriers; and draws lessons from international cases to inform Australian policy.

Lead researcher: Professor Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology
Project number: 51366

The National Housing Accord has a target of 1.2 million well-located dwellings. There is a need to better define what ‘well-located’ means, and to identify supply barriers and enablers in these locations. This project conceptualises and maps well-located areas, and explores policy options to deliver well-located housing that is affordable.

Lead researcher: Professor Rachel Ong ViforJ, Curtin University
Project number: 81353

This project will critically assess the Australian rental vacancy rate, a market signal shaping housing supply and rental policy decisions. The research includes: national/international reviews of datasets and methodologies; a critique of the ‘equilibrium’ assumption; and insights on user interpretations and decision-making applications.

Lead researcher: Margaret Reynolds, Swinburne University of Technology
Project number: 51328

Informed by an Investigative Panel and supporting desktop research, this project will develop a framework for classifying and evaluating different models of public administration for housing policy. In scope will be both comparator country models and Australia’s own historical experience at both federal and state/territory levels.

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Joshua Newman, Monash University
Project number: 52324

Using innovative futuring methodology, this project aims to generate new ideal future models for private rental housing and identify key policy transitions needed to create a long-term sustainable rental system for Australia in the 21st century, informed by an evidenced account of current trends and international experience.

Lead researcher: Dr Laurence Troy, University of Sydney
Project number: 73359

This Investigative Panel establishes the housing circumstances and experiences of temporary visa holders (TVHs) in Australia and provides critical evidence of challenges and opportunities in the development of housing policy and service provision. The panel’s findings form a set of policy and practice recommendations to improve housing outcomes for TVHs.

Lead researcher: Dr Debbie Faulkner, University of South Australia
Project number: 32315

This research project will investigate the scope and outcomes of technologically-enabled data collection practices in Australia’s private and social rental sectors. Current data practices, regulations, and compliance will be examined to recommend appropriate data gathering, security and use, to improve protections for Australian renters.

Lead researcher: Dr Sophia Maalsen, University of Sydney
Project number: 73339

The focus of this project is to identify changes to policy and practice that will improve housing outcomes for people with disability. Including an understanding of what is considered ‘good’ housing outcomes by the sector and by people with a disability will be an important outcome and contribute to recommendations.

Lead researcher: Professor Monica Cuskelly, University of Tasmania
Project number: 41347

This project will examine how short stay accommodation has changed over time and will use extensive quantitative data to map business models. Q-methodology will be used to examine perspectives of landlords. These approaches combine to equip policymakers with insights into the business models and perspectives of STRA landlords in capital cities and strategic tourist locations.

Lead researcher: Dr Michaela Lang, Monash University
Project number: 52337 

Lodging houses can contribute to affordability, accessibility and support delivery, but also come with risks. This project, comprising analysis of laws, policies, business models and lived experience of lodging houses across three states, will produce a national lodging houses typology and a framework for appropriate policy development and regulatory practice.

Lead researcher: Dr Chris Martin, UNSW Sydney
Project number: 71355

This project explores the dynamics of housing stress in Australia, using predictive analytics to identify leading indicators that can help target households at risk of housing stress, arrears, default or eviction. Dynamic event analysis and multi-stage budgeting will cast light on the journeys into housing stress and identify potential mitigators.

Lead researcher: Professor Alan Duncan, Curtin University
Project number: 81367

This research will critically examine the longer-term impacts of public housing transfer programs across Australia using data analysis and case studies. It will consider tenant experience, social housing investment and sector expansion.

Lead researcher: Dr Edgar Liu, UNSW Sydney
Project number: 71344

This research project analyses barriers to safely accommodating seasonal workers in regional Australia. It will generate a set of policy responses for use in regional locations that address labour shortages and contributes to safe and secure working conditions for seasonal workers.

Lead researcher: Associate Professor Tod Jones, Curtin University
Project number: 81348

This project will develop a typology mapping the objectives and characteristics of government-led shared equity models and evaluate the effectiveness of different models as pathways to mainstream homeownership. The project will uncover features that improve outcomes for both home purchasers and governments to support the design of sustainable, shared equity programs in Australia.

Lead researcher: Professor Rachel Ong ViforJ, Curtin University
Project number: 81336

This project charts a national typology of STRA quantifying housing impacts across metropolitan and regional case study settings. Leveraging international experience and stakeholder engagement, the project will yield new insights on STRA within the wider housing system, informing effective policy and regulation.

Lead researcher: Professor Nicole Gurran, University of Sydney
Project number: 73335

This data project will explore public housing net change over 2006-2021 per SA1 in Australian capital cities and regional areas. It will consider local area trends, concentrations, density, amenity and potential stock transfers to understand future scenarios and policy directions.

Lead researcher: Dr Stephen Glackin, Swinburne University of Technology
Project number: 51326

This project maps out the program logic that shapes housing assistance across Australia, making comparisons between jurisdictions and internationally. Through policy review, interviews and a workshop, it provides policy makers with alternative solutions, best practice and ways to align public resources with housing assistance objectives.

Lead researcher: Professor Andrew Beer, University of South Australia
Project number: 32358

This project conducts analysis to understand the impacts of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) on homelessness, financial insecurity, well-being and health of low-income and privately-renting parents and children. This project also examines the role of CRA in intergenerational transmission of disadvantages before providing advice to address the private rental unaffordability issue.

Lead researcher: Professor Chris Leishman, University of South Australia
Project number: 32345

Homelessness imposes significant costs on individuals and society. This research will merge data from a Specialist Homelessness Service provider to unit record files from the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA) to better understand the relation between homelessness interventions, income support patterns and housing trajectories.

Lead researcher: Professor Stephen Whelan, University of Sydney
Project number: 73346

Using a participatory research methodology, this project convenes a representative Panel of key informants to identify the optimal administration arrangements for the delivery of efficient, effective housing policy within a federal system, taking account the surrounding economic, social and political context, now and into the future.

Lead researcher: Dr Kathleen Flanagan, University of Tasmania
Project number: 41318

This research examines the prevalence and impacts of workplace trauma on frontline workers in social housing and homelessness services in Australia. It will develop a framework of key principles as well as a suite of options to reduce and mitigate workplace trauma in these sectors.

Lead researcher: Dr Deborah Batterham, Swinburne University of Technology
Project number: 51329