Housing assistance and non-shelter outcomes

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This material was produced with funding from the Commonwealth of Australia and the Australian States and Territories. AHURI Ltd gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from the Commonwealth, State and Territory Government, without which this work would not have been possible. DISCLAIMER AHURI Ltd is an independent, non-political body which has supported this project as part of its programme of research into housing and urban development, which it hopes will be of value to policy-makers, researchers, industry and communities. The opinions in this publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AHURI Ltd, its Board or its funding organisations. No responsibility is accepted by AHURI Ltd or its Board or its funders for the accuracy or omission of any statement, opinion, advice or information in this publication. Commonwealth and State Governments spend very large amounts of money on housing assistance. They provide housing of particular types in particular locations, with specific affordability outcomes. The housing or shelter impacts of these interventions are reasonably well understood. However, given the capacity of housing to affect many other elements of people's lives, an important question is the extent to which housing assistance impacts on a range of what could be called non-shelter or non housing outcomes including the impact of housing on one's health, employment prospects and the educational outcomes of children. An understanding of non-shelter impacts is important for a variety of reasons. Firstly, if it can be shown that spending on housing has a variety of non-shelter benefits that may reduce the call on government funds in the short, medium and long term, this is an important argument to make when negotiating with Treasuries and others for housing assistance funds. Secondly, the type or " design " of housing assistance might have significant impacts on the non-shelter benefits – this would have implications for SHAs and others in the delivery of housing assistance. Thirdly, non-shelter benefits might vary between different target groups (e.g. aged persons, singles, single parents etc). This outcome might affect the allocation process within SHAs. Whilst the issue of non-shelter outcomes has been part of the academic debate for a number of years, the research with a clear housing policy focus has been much more limited. Much of the research has been undertaken overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom and the USA. The different housing and …