Housing Policy In Australia Research Articles

Exploring affordable housing policy in federal states: social housing and housing allowances in Australia, Austria, Canada, and Germany

ABSTRACT In federal states, constituent units play an important role in affordable housing policy. Nevertheless, insights into affordable housing policy in federations are lacking. To lay the grounds for future research about an increasingly salient policy field, this research note explores the degree of de/centralization in affordable housing policy in Australia, Austria, Canada, and Germany, focusing on the two main policy instruments: social housing and the housing allowance. The research note develops an analytical framework that allows the examination of the relative significance of the federal government and the constituent units, and it applies this framework to the four countries. The research note highlights that legislative authority often does not fully capture the degree of de/centralization. Governments’ decision to provide a policy instrument, the relative importance of policy instruments, the provision of conditional grants, and the existence of a functional division of powers must also be considered.

Hal Pawson, Vivienne Milligan and Judith Yates: Housing policy in Australia: a case for system reform

Hal Pawson, Vivienne Milligan and Judith Yates: Housing policy in Australia: a case for system reform

Future directions for social housing in NSW: new opportunities for ‘place’ and ‘community’ in public housing renewal

ABSTRACTLarge scale Estate Renewal Projects (ERPs) have been a prominent feature of recent public housing policy in Australia. These projects are often presented as an urban panacea intended to solve the social and asset challenges that have left estates as neighbourhoods of ‘concentrated disadvantage’. Communities Plus, a component of the recent Future Directions for Social Housing in NSW policy represents a recommitment to place based ERPs. These plans include a broad range of social and physical environment interventions that “create opportunities for innovation through partnership”. Past research has sought to understand the impact of social mix policies. Or have championed an idealistic agenda for urban design and renewal. This research establishes a nuanced understanding of how conceptions of ‘community’ and ‘place’ are deployed by stakeholders to navigate social housing renewal by approaching ERPs from three directions: lived experience, discourse and spatial form. The article draws on interviews, place audits, and participant led photographic surveys from two Sydney ERPs to argue that estate renewal is a complex and often site-specific undertaking. Deployed sensitively, Communities Plus may have significant potential to ensure equitable renewal of NSW’s social housing estates.

A Study on the Social Housing Policy in Australia

A Study on the Social Housing Policy in Australia

The Comeback of National Housing Policy in Australia: First Reflections

Following election of a new national government in November 2007, Australian housing policy is undergoing major reform under the leadership of the first dedicated national Housing Minister since 1996. A new intergovernmental agreement to frame future housing policy and drive major reform of social housing commenced in 2009. The Australian Government has also embarked on a variety of major housing initiatives that include: offering subsidies to private investors in new affordable rental housing; subsidising costs of residential development where savings are passed to homebuyers; and national partnership agreements, which incorporate targets to improve housing in remote Indigenous communities and to significantly reduce homelessness. As well, investments in additional social housing and cash assistance to first homebuyers have featured strongly in economic stimulus packages that are designed to offset domestic impacts of the global financial crisis. An increase of over 220 per cent in national government expenditure on housing over the period 2008/09 to 2011/12 indicates the magnitude of change. This paper documents Australia's new policy settings and examines the reform directions critically in the context of the ongoing debate in the housing literature about the role of national housing policy in increasing the supply of affordable and appropriate housing, economic development, wealth creation and social welfare.

National Housing Policy in Australia: Are New Initiatives in Affordable Housing Sustainable?

AbstractHouse price growth in Australia has outstripped income growth to the point where more than one million low and middle income households are now experiencing housing stress. Moreover, social housing provision has been gradually wound back in Australia since the 1980s in favour of a residual model based on tax concessions and subsidies, that has exacerbated the problem. However innovative policies introduced in 2009 by the Australian Government in response to the global economic crisis suggest a change in direction that might offer new, affordable social housing in a difficult economic climate. This paper critically reviews affordable housing policy in Australia and new initiatives such as the National Affordable Housing Agreements. We conclude that current initiatives remain constrained by hastily implemented policies, a ‘rush to build’ and a reluctance to provide an ongoing commitment to social housing.

Contentment and Suffering: the Impact of Australia's Housing Policy and Tenure on Older Australians

Housing policy in Australia historically has focused on facilitating homeownership and creating some buffer for those households that are not homeowners. This paper explores the implications of this policy for older Australians. What is argued is that housing tenure has become a crucial divide and that older Australians who have not had the good fortune to access homeownership or public / community housing and who are dependent on the private rental sector as a result, often find themselves in desperate circumstances. The argument is developed that the failure to put in place a housing policy which would give all citizens the ability to access adequate and affordable housing, has led to a situation where a substantial and increasing number of older Australians have untenable housing costs and minimal disposal income. The article concludes that the present policy initiatives aimed at addressing the housing affordability crisis will have little impact on the situation of older people who are currently in housing stress.

Contested Housing Landscapes? Social Inclusion, Deinstitutionalisation and Housing Policy in Australia

Deinstitutionalisation is represented as a major step toward social inclusion through the resettlement of disabled people residing in segregated large‐scale institutions into community‐based homes. By promoting the right to live in ordinary community residential settings, deinstitutionalisation fundamentally changes both the support services and housing arrangements of former institutional residents. In Australia, as in many western countries, debates on community care have tended to focus on the location and nature of non‐housing supports for people leaving dependent care. This focus, however, overlooks the fact that deinstitutionalisation involves a radical rehousing of people in care. This paper explores the character and implications of deinstitutionalisation in Australia as a rehousing process. It is based on a recent national research project that has examined the housing futures of people with intellectual disabilities who have been, or will be, deinstitutionalised. The paper considers the increasingly divergent socio‐political perspectives that have emerged in recent discussions about social inclusion, institutional reform and independent living and their implications for housing and community care policies.

The Discourse of 'Community' and the Reinvention of Social Housing Policy in Australia

Recent developments in Australian social housing policy encompass a larger role for non-government housing providers. The new emphasis is mediated and supported by the discourse of 'community' housing. 'Community' is invoked as an ideal by liberal critics of the centralised state, and conversely, by critics of liberalism who pose it as an alternative to individualism and the abstract formalism of the liberal state. Much of the rhetoric of community housing in Australia has emphasised its claimed potential to demonstrate ways in which social housing management can be made more accountable and responsive, as well as more equitable and efficient, but the evident contradictions in the discourse raise questions concerning the reasons for, and likely outcomes of, state sponsorship of community housing. This paper employs 'textually oriented discourse analysis' to examine key policy documents which have informed the development of community housing policy in Australia, and demonstrates linkages between these discourse samples, and the international tendencies in the societal order of discourse identified by Fairclough as 'democratisation', 'commodification' and 'technologisation'.

RECONSTRUCTING ABORIGINAL HOUSING POLICY FOR REMOTE AREAS: HOW MUCH ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE?

Abstract: This article applies Schaffer's 1984 critique of the “sectoralism” of mainstream public policy practice and discourse to Aboriginal housing policy in Australia. It analyses the approaches and programs of the Aboriginal housing policy sector and the priority given to them over the years. It then identifies the dominant agenda of Aboriginal housing policy defined in terms of massive statistics of nationwide Aboriginal housing need. An alterative agenda defined in terms of appropriate non‐conventional housing and facilities for remote areas is also identified and its struggle for recognition traced. The final sections of the article suggest reasons why this alternative agenda has remained on the margins of the Aboriginal housing policy sector and examine its prospects for becoming less marginal in the future.

Government housing policy in New South Wales 1788–1900

Abstract This paper discusses the development of housing policy in Australia through a study of New South Wales. Throughout the 19th century the government became increasingly involved in housing. Its involvement was reluctant and not always welcomed. It was principally concerned with relationships between landlords and tenants and the quality of housing, and this paper examines the factors influencing the emerging pattern of intervention.

HOUSING POLICY IN AUSTRALIA

Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policyVolume 3, Issue 3 p. 38-50 HOUSING POLICY IN AUSTRALIA Ross A. Williams, Ross A. Williams Ross Williams is Professor of Econometrics at the University of Melbourne. This is a revised version of a paper presented to the 54th ANZAAS Congress, Canberra, May 1984. The paper has benefited from comments by R. Carter, H. Kendig, I. Manning, J. Pincus, and C. Walsh.Search for more papers by this author Ross A. Williams, Ross A. Williams Ross Williams is Professor of Econometrics at the University of Melbourne. This is a revised version of a paper presented to the 54th ANZAAS Congress, Canberra, May 1984. The paper has benefited from comments by R. Carter, H. Kendig, I. Manning, J. Pincus, and C. Walsh.Search for more papers by this author First published: September 1984 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-3441.1984.tb00462.xCitations: 5 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume3, Issue3September 1984Pages 38-50 RelatedInformation