Rooming house futures: governing for growth, transparency and fairness

Examines the policy and practical challenges being encountered in the development of a legitimate and viable rooming/boarding house sector, and how might these best be overcome through an improved regulatory regime and other measures to address a range of housing needs. Executive summary This Discussion Paper is provided to invitees to an Investigative Panel on Rooming House Futures as part of a project funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). The principal question framing this project asks: What are the policy and practical challenges being encountered in the development of a legitimate and viable rooming house/boarding house sector and how might these best be overcome through an improved regulatory regime and other measures to address a range of housing needs? Key features of the rooming house sector in Victoria are: There are 1131 registered rooming houses, with 60 per cent operated by individuals and 40 per cent by organisations. The majority are in suburban locations in suburban Melbourne, particularly south-eastern Melbourne and regional centres, most notably Geelong. The number of unregistered rooming houses, for which there are varying estimates, is unknown. The growth of new rooming houses has principally stemmed from the conversion of existing private houses into rooming houses in the suburbs which has arrested and reversed the decline of rooming houses as traditional older style rooming houses were demolished or converted back to single family use. Rooming houses accommodate disadvantaged and vulnerable people but, recently, new forms of demand have emerged which includes that from international and domestic students, travellers, low-income earners and some types of key workers. People find accommodation in rooming houses in different ways including through tertiary education providers, referrals from not-for-profit agencies, online sites such as Gumtree and through word-of-mouth. Developments in the sector have been market-led with increasing growth in segments in the rooming/boarding house sector that appear to have outpaced policy and regulatory settings. Chapter 2 presents an analysis of available evidence on the rooming house market. In the period from 2006 through to 2012 Non Government Organisation (NGO) campaigns highlighted issues of amenity, health and safety for rooming house residents in the context of a changing housing market and called for regulatory reform. In Chapter 3 an account of changes to the system of regulation that followed a government review is provided along with an analysis of stakeholder views of the outcome. In Chapter 4 a summary account of significant outstanding issues is presented which lead to identification of key issues for further discussion by the Investigative Panel (Chapter 5)

Social housing strategies, financing mechanisms and outcomes

This review provides a brief update of developments in social housing policies and national strategies in a cross‐section of developed countries since 2007. The countries included in the review are: Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden (described collectively as European countries) and the United States of America. The time‐frame for this exercise is largely influenced by timing of the global economic downturn and credit crisis which has, in many countries, prompted fundamental policy shifts. With this in mind, the next part of this introductory chapter highlights some of the key features of the post‐2007 economic context for housing policy. In selecting countries for inclusion in the review we have aimed to encompass a diversity of national social housing systems in countries with broadly similar economic and social profiles to Australia. Jurisdictions included are those where one or more of the contributing authors have direct knowledge of the social housing system and have recently conducted research on aspects of housing policy. The review has been commissioned by Housing NSW to provide background information for the ongoing development of The Housing Strategy for New South Wales. It builds on and extends research funded by the City Futures Research Centre (UNSW), the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and OTB TU Delft which is published in the following conference papers and reports: Lawson, Gilmour and Milligan (2010); Lawson (2009); Lawson and Milligan (2007); Milligan and Lawson (2008); Lawson and Nieboer (2009); Lawson, Berry, Yates and Milligan (2009); Milligan, Gurran, Lawson, Phibbs and Phillips (2009); and Hulse, Milligan and Easthope (2011). The report also draws on the UK Housing Review (Pawson & Wilcox, 2011 and forthcoming 2012) and on recently published material available online compiled by various research and sector organisations in a range of countries. The report was prepared for Housing NSW, Department of Families and Communities, NSW Government in December 2011 and has been recently release

Evaluation of Newcastle’s ‘cooperative’ approach to the prevention and management of homelessness in light of changing Government policy

This was a follow up to a previous funded study and examined the manner in which services to prevent and tackle homelessness in Newcastle were developing in the face of substantial funding cuts

Localism and homelessness: a decade of disaster in England

Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Hal Pawson, and Beth Watts use the example of rising homelessness in England to illustrate the argument that localist policymaking has an intrinsic tendency to disadvantage socially marginalised groups

The limits of localism: a decade of disaster on homelessness in England

The rhetoric and practice of localism has attracted significant support within both political and academic circles in the UK in recent years. However, it is the contention of this article that there are, or should be, limits to localism as applied to the basic citizenship rights of vulnerable people. Drawing on a ten-year, mixed-methods study, we use the example of sharply rising homelessness in England to illustrate our argument that localist policymaking has an intrinsic tendency to disadvantage socially marginalised groups. While we acknowledge the central role played by austerity in driving up homelessness over the past decade, we advance the case that the post-2010 localist agenda of successive UK governments has also had an independent and malign effect. At the very least, we seek to demonstrate that localism cannot be viewed as a taken-for-granted progressive model, with centralism (that is, the consistent implementation of a policy across a whole country) also perfectly defensible on progressive grounds in relevant circumstances

Next moves? Expanding affordable rental housing in Australia through institutional investment

Efforts to engage institutional investment in rental housing provision were badly damaged by the 2014 termination of the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS); yet lessons can be learned from the NRAS initiative and these should inform a successor program.   Building on our major 2013 study, a newly-published City Futures report reviews the NRAS experience and other emerging developments around the institutional financing of rental housing.    With contributions from (CFRC Visiting Fellow) Judy Yates and Prof Peter Williams (Cambridge University), the report focuses mainly on the Australian context. However, it also references rapidly unfolding UK developments involving both government- and industry-led initiatives that have made major advances in this space over the past two years and which have possible implications for Australia.    Drawing on interviews with finance experts and senior policymakers, as well as a review of recent Australian and UK publications, the report details 10 recommendations to government for action to re-start progress towards this widely-shared policy objective

'A pathway to where?' Inquiry into understanding and reimagining social housing pathways. AHURI Final Report No.332

This report is the final report in a series for the AHURI Inquiry into understanding and reimagining social housing pathways. Housing pathways are the housing experiences of tenants and their households over time and space. They are not linear and may refer to changes in tenure, household form, experiences and attachment. This Inquiry draws on a range of data to understand: 1) how social housing pathways are conceptualised and constructed by operational housing policies and the wider social policy context in Australia; 2) what survey and administrative data tell us about who is moving into and out of social housing; and, 3) the lived experience of people who have moved into, within and/or out of social housing. These findings are brought together in this report to reimagine social housing pathways for positive housing outcomes for current and future tenants

Jana Józefa Szczepańskiego polemiki z socrealizmem

The author shows the consistency of J. J. Szczepańskie views on the essence of art and the artist’s calling. Szczepański, the author of Polska jesień {Polish Autumn), had a lot of bitter experience with censorship. In spite of this he did not write a single socialist realist text, and in his subsequent works he openly challenged the assumptions of the utilitarian, schematic, and propagandist art. His artistic code of behaviour was shaped by the ethical ideas of Joseph Conrad and principles of artistic autonomy

Social housing as infrastructure: rationale, prioritisation and investment pathway

Considering social housing as infrastructure may improve investment in the sector, as well as increase transparency and efficiency in project appraisal and funding prioritisation. It explored different methods of calculating the benefits of social housing relative to cost, including the savings that might accrue in other areas of government expenditure. The research also modelled ways to best finance and fund social housing, revealing that a capital investment strategy supplemented by efficient financing is substantially more cost-effective than a commercially financed model reliant on an operating subsidy