Innovation in stock matching and allocations: the social housing challenge

Abstract

AHURIAHURI is a national independent research network with an expert not-for-profit research management company, AHURI Limited, at its centre. AHURI's mission is to deliver high quality research that influences policy development and practice change to improve the housing and urban environments of all Australians.Using high quality, independent evidence and through active, managed engagement, AHURI works to inform the policies and practices of governments and the housing and urban development industries, and stimulate debate in the broader Australian community. AHURI undertakes evidence-based policy development on a range of priority policy topics that are of interest to our audience groups, including housing and labour markets, urban growth and renewal, planning and infrastructure development, housing supply and affordability, homelessness, economic productivity, and social cohesion and wellbeing. AHURI Limited also gratefully acknowledges the contributions, both financial and in-kind, of its university research partners who have helped make the completion of this material possible.The authors are most appreciative of the thoughtful contributions to the study made by stakeholders who participated in interviews and the stakeholder workshop. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Professor Emeritus Terry Burke and Dr Kathleen Flanagan, who have generously contributed their time and wisdom to inform this research, to Liss Ralston for her work, and to the two international advisers involved in this research,

Poverty and Australian housing: findings from an Investigative Panel

“…The most important intervention to address housing-related poverty has traditionally been social housing. It continues to be an important destination tenure for many marginalised and vulnerable people (Levin, Tually et al 2022). While social housing does not always offer an ideal living environment for people who are dealing with trauma or safety concerns, it nonetheless provides secure tenure and ongoing affordability.…”

Understanding the drivers and outcomes of public housing tenant relocation

“…Relocation of public housing tenants cannot be understood separately from the context of severe resource constraint within which they are occurring (Muir, Powell et al 2020). This is characterised by declining government spending per capita (Productivity Commission 2022), a widening gap between need and supply (Lawson, Pawson et al 2018;Levin, Tually et al 2023), serious underinvestment in existing stock resulting in a paradoxical patchwork of paucity of supply and vacancy; and a series of significant policy shifts that is changing the way public housing is conceived and operated (Jacobs et al 2010). These constraints place state housing authorities under increased pressure and scrutiny in relation to tenancy and stock management.…”

“…Public housing tenants are more likely to have experienced significant stigma due to a range of intersecting disadvantages (Jacobs, Arthurson et al 2011) including periods of homelessness, mental health issues or family violence. As a direct result of lack of availability, public housing is only available to those with the most urgent and complex needs (Levin et al 2023;Morris, Clarke et al 2022). This provides vital context for understanding relocations as a process of displacement that reverberates through time and across the lives of tenants in geographically and temporally diverse ways.…”

“…Allocation is a form of rationing access to public housing, a direct result of the widening gap between need and supply (Levin et al 2023). This rationing is however underpinned by market pressures that have their own geographies, such that in some cases a tenant might be allocated to the top of the list and provided a good housing outcome, whereas in other cases a tenant might be displaced from the urban area altogether.…”

“…Allocation entails a distinct set of practices, assumptions and policy rationalisations that enable 'matching', or the process of attempting to fit the requirements of a household with key attributes of the available stock (Muir et al 2020). The primary matching dimension is between household size and number of bedrooms (Levin et al 2023). In today's context, where there is not enough stock to meet demand, the presumption that allocation processes help distribute based on need is now defunct.…”