State directed hybridity? – the relationship between non-profit housing organizations and the state in three national contexts

Abstract

This paper presents results from the first international comparative study of non-profit housing organizations in Australia, England and the Netherlands to engage with panels of organizational leaders. The study uses a ‘modified Delphi method’ with Likert-type scaled surveys, followed by in-depth interviews. The paper introduces the concept of hybridity as a way of understanding the interaction of state, market and community drivers in steering non-profit housing organizations. In all three countries, findings indicate that there are clear limits to independence from continued state influence. In England this takes the form of state-directed cross-subsidy and welfare reform, in Australia business development strategies have had to respond to volatility and reductions in state funding, while in the Netherlands public policy has recently restricted the remit of associations to a low-income niche and reduced commercial involvement. These findings lend support to ‘contested logics’ models of organizational hybridity rather than either ‘out-of-control monstrous hybrids’ or linear privatization models.