Research in progress

Over a third of Australian households are currently private or public renters, with homeownership becoming more challenging to achieve as house price growth accelerates and income growth remains sluggish. Regardless of whether or not households aspire to homeownership, the current macroeconomic environment is characterised by rising costs of living, in part due to rising housing costs. In particular, rents currently make up around 6 percent of the CPI basket, making it the second largest household expenditure class.

Homelessness imposes significant costs on individuals and society. This research will merge data from a Specialist Homelessness Service provider with unit record files from Australian government Linked Data to better understand the relationship between homelessness interventions, income support patterns and housing trajectories. 

The administration of Australian housing policy is complex, multi-layered and inconsistent across states and territories. It is further complicated by the vertical fiscal imbalance and split responsibilities across the federation, and differing levels of involvement by the not-for-profit and private sectors. This results in varying levels of efficacy and efficiency, with uneven consequences for the outcomes experienced by individuals, households and communities.

People experiencing homelessness and accessing social housing are some of the most disadvantaged members of the community, with significant experiences of trauma. This high incidence of trauma can have significant detrimental impacts on the health and wellbeing of frontline staff in these sectors.