Individualised housing assistance: findings and policy options

This report presents the findings of an Evidence-Based Policy Inquiry (for panel members, see Appendix 1). The research team was led by Professor Keith Jacobs of University of Tasmania and involved colleagues working at Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Three research projects were conducted to support this Inquiry. Project A: ‘Individualised and market-based housing assistance: evidence and policy options’ considered the underpinnings of market-based mechanisms and welfare reforms as applied to housing assistance. It collected data on the development and implementation of individualisation programs both overseas and within Australia, encompassing payments to individuals, service responses and user participation. The full report of this project has been published (Jacobs et al. 2015). Project B: ‘Housing assistance demand: a household-based policy analysis’ used data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey to anticipate future demand for housing assistance and the extent to which assistance might be customised to meet this demand. The project also included in-depth interviews with senior-level expert stakeholders from government, the community sector and industry, to hear their views on the efficacy and viability of individualised and/or choice-based models of housing assistance in Australia. The final report for this project has been published (Stone et al. 2016). Project C: ‘NDIS, housing assistance, choice and control for people with disability’ focused on the NDIS as a live case study. The project sought to ascertain the challenges presented when organisations attempt to deliver assistance in the form of individualised care packages. The findings of the project have been published (Wiesel and Habibis 2015). This Final Report integrates research from the three empirical projects and sets out future policy options that arise from the findings.