Supporting social housing tenants: Issues and interventions.

The aim of the Unison Housing Research Lab Research Report series is to develop a clearer understanding of who Unison works with, and identify areas where systems development is required. This series involves deep analysis of administrative data collected by Union Housing to drive decision making. The Lab also produces a Think Piece series. This series critically examines theories and evidence that are influential in the areas of social housing and homelessness, and that are pertinent to Unison’s mission, policies and practice

Developing Spatial Design Know How with and for Young People Livingin Out-of-Home Residential Care

Through an evolving co-production design charrette, this project sought to develop spatial design know-how in partnership with young people who have lived experience of residential care. Bringing spatial design and lived experience together in dialogue, the project focused on the environment of residential care in relation to questions of belonging and ‘home’. The aim of this project is to develop a shared understanding of spatial design know-how that can be used by young people currently living in residential care. The project involved collaboration with lived experience consultants from CREATE Foundation and Y-Change Berry Street together with Gregory Nicolau (consultant psychologist and founder, Australian Childhood Trauma Group)

Investigative Journalism: A system of creativity

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Fuel-dependent, shape-selective, distinct blue and green photoluminescence from α-Bi2O3 and β-Bi2O3 synthesised using microwave combustion

In the current study, α-Bi2O3 and β-Bi2O3 were synthesised using a one-step, novel, solid–solid combustion technique. The reaction rate was increased with the use of microwaves (molecular heating) compared to direct or indirect heating. A strong relationship was observed between the fuel, polymorphic structure, shape and optical properties of the synthesised Bi2O3. Photoluminescence studies reveal that two major visible emissions are observed for all samples. The two emissions are distinct with a broad peak in blue and a narrow peak in green. The intensity of the green characteristic emission depends strongly on the heating method used for synthesis and is more intense for microwave-synthesised samples

Mental disability disclosure in the workplace: the role of line managers

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Remittances, migration and economic abuse: ‘invisible in plain sight’

Remittances are seen as a moral good and a currency of care. It is money sent by a ‘good son’ (most often) fulfilling his filial duty. Remittances have been feted in the migration literature as one of the largest and most resilient international flows, contributing to welfare and development at the household, community, and national levels. However, remittances can become the medium of economic abuse when they are sent without consultation. They can deny the wife and children necessities in the country of destination, appropriate the wife’s money, sequester money in another jurisdiction to build assets that exclude the wife. Often, the husband prevents his wife from sending money to her natal family from her earnings. The danger of remittances being used as a medium of economic abuse increased during COVID-19 as financial need increased in both the source and destination countries

The Children's Sensorium

Background: Emergent literature focusing on children and post-pandemic recovery suggest that children were more adversely affected by the pandemic compared to many other populations, particularly in terms of emotional wellbeing and resilience (Fitzgerald et al., 2021; Hsieh et al., 2021). Meanwhile, there is a growing body of evidence that artistic engagement can support improved emotional wellbeing in children (Camilleri, 2007; Atkinson & Rubidge, 2013; Stucky & Nobel, 2010), as recognised in the World Health Organisation’s Report on The Role of Arts in improving Health and Wellbeing (Fancourt & Finn, 2019). Art viewing has been linked with stimulating creativity, imagination and reflexivity, while artmaking has been shown to increase children’s self-esteem, sense of achievement and creativity and social skills (Roberts et al., 2011; Zarobe & Bungay, 2017). Contribution: The Children’s Sensorium was an interactive, experiential exhibition that provided practical strategies for children and their families to increase mental health literacy and emotional resilience. It was produced by Grace McQuilten with leading artistic direction from Boonwurrung elder N’arweet Carolyn Briggs and was presented at RMIT Design Hub Gallery as part of the Big Anxiety Festival . Strategies around emotional resilience and wellbeing were developed with the guidance of critical mental health researcher Renata Kokanović and industry collaborator, Live Particle. Significance: The exhibition received $50,000 from VicHealth and was profiled widely in the media, including coverage in The Age & The Herald Sun, ArtsHub, Channel 10 news and ABC Radio National’s Life Matters. It featured new artworks by Tamara Borovica, Angela Clarke, Heather Hesterman, Fiona Hillary, Larissa Hjorth, Camilla Maling, Hiromi Tango, Philip Samartzis and Anna Schwann, and featured design by Anthony Clarke (Bloxas). A large public program engaged 300+ people in workshops, with more than 2000+ visitors to the exhibition

Sustaining tenancies: Measuring performance

This is the second of two related papers prepared for the Social Housing Regulation Review panel, on the topic of social housing tenancy sustainment. In the first paper (Sustaining tenancies: Issues and challenges for social housing providers) we canvassed a range of issues relating to social housing tenancy sustainment: why it is important, and why our current understanding of this topic is constrained. In this paper we address two specific questions. The first is what might a tenancy sustainment standard look like? The second asks what data would be required to effectively measure performance against that standard? At one level, thinking through these questions is a hypothetical, “blue sky” exercise, because an official tenancy sustainment standard does not exist for Victorian social housing. But at a deeper level, thinking through these questions requires an acknowledgement that an implicit tenancy sustainment already exists, but not by design. This standard is a public fiction of equal probability of tenancy sustainment and a private set of unequal consequences. The implicit standard exists along with an unnecessarily sparse set of data with which comparisons between social housing providers are always difficult. Neither the implied tenancy sustainment standard, nor the data, are ideal or even particularly desirable, but they have an impact. In this paper, we describe the current, implicit tenancy sustainment standard in Victorian social housing, and the data currently available. We also describe a hypothetical but preferred tenancy sustainment standard, and the data that would be required to effectively measure performance against it. While we are under no illusions that an infallible tenancy sustainment standard is attainable, we also consider that a better one could be achieved than that which currently exists by default. Specifically, we consider that a tenancy sustainment standard should and could be an accessible, consistent, and reliable set of information which allows social housing providers to determine: 1. Whether they exceed or fall short of expected probabilities for a) tenancy sustainment, and b) avoidance of unfavourable tenancy exit, based on a general baseline derived from data contributed by a wide pool of social housing providers; 2. Whether they exceed or fall short of the proportion of tenants with low tenancy sustainment probabilities, in comparison to other social housing providers; 3. Whether they exceed or fall short of expected probabilities for a) tenancy sustainment, and b) avoidance of unfavourable tenancy exit, relative to the profile of their tenancy base

Transitioning Bendigo’s Energy Economy, a Feasibility Study of Renewable Energy

Background The Greater Bendigo City Council (the Council) has a strong commitment towards a renewable energy transition, both for the operations of the City of Greater Bendigo (the City) and for the municipality and wider region. Council’s revised Climate Change and Environment Strategy 2021-2026, expresses targets to achieve zero carbon in the City’s operations by 2030 and zero carbon across the Greater Bendigo municipal community by 2030. The Strategy includes a target for 500% of the municipality’s 2021 energy demand to be generated through local renewable energy by 2036. The study area was 235 ‘statistical area 1s’ (SA1s) in Bendigo’s urban and peri-urban area that had LiDAR coverage. Bendigo, as the regional centre and with abundant solar potential and the rapid update of renewable resources such as rooftop PV, has the potential to become a crucial driving force in the implementation of the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (CVGA) Loddon Mallee Renewable Energy Roadmap (the Roadmap). The Roadmap provides a snapshot of the opportunities and obstacles the region faces as it moves to a decentralised renewable electricity energy system

Bank risk-taking and corporate investment: Evidence from the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009

In this paper, we explore the relation between the banking sector's risk-taking and a firm's investment (“corporate investment”). Specifically, we ask whether firms' cash holdings moderate the effect of the banking sector's risk-taking on corporate investment. Based on a panel sample of publicly listed non-financial firms in 15 EU countries during the period 1990–2015, we document several key findings. First, both cash holdings and the banking sector's risk-taking are positively associated with corporate investment. Second, bank loan growth, which roughly captures the supply of bank credit, is not related to corporate investment. Third, firms with smaller cash holdings disproportionately invest more than do firms with larger cash holdings during periods of higher risk-taking by the banking sector