Inclusive Housing in Australia – A Voluntary Response

The lack of inclusive housing in Australia contributes to the marginalization and exclusion of people with disability and older people from family and community life. The Australian government has handed over the responsibility of increasing the supply of inclusive housing to the housing industry through an agreed national access standard and a voluntary strategy. Voluntary strategies have not been successful in other constituencies and little is known about what would work in Australia today. Findings from a research project into the voluntariness of the housing industry indicate that a reliable and consistent supply is unlikely without an equivalent increase in demand. The strategy has, however, an important role to play in the task of changing housing industry practices towards building more inclusive communities. Keywords—Australia, housing, inclusion, voluntary, industry S in many developed countries, the Australian population is aging and becoming less productive, yet has high expectations regarding health and welfare services and quality of life [1]. The shape of its cities, in particular, the supply of inclusive housing, will play a crucial role in meeting this challenge. In the absence of a national mandatory access code for housing, the needs of older people and people with disability who wish to live in regular communities have been found to be neglected [2]. In response to the Australian Government’s commitment to becoming a more inclusive society [3]-[4], key housing industry, disability and community leaders agreed in 2010 to a national access code and voluntary strategy to provide all new housing with minimum access features by 2020. If voluntary strategies have not worked in the past, what is required for a voluntary strategy to work in Australia now? This paper first describes the context for the voluntary provision of inclusive housing in Australia, and the current responses by the housing industry. The paper then explores why residential environments are inaccessible and what is typically done about it. It then describes a qualitative research project into the voluntariness of the housing industry in providing inclusive housing and concludes by reflecting on what is likely to be required for the housing industry to to meet its 2020 goal.