How we think about it does matter, write Kathleen Flanagan, Chris Martin, Julie Lawson and Keith Jacobs, in this article which was first published in The Conversation.
How Australian governments meet such housing challenges has changed over time. Decades ago, direct investment in publicly owned housing was the core of their response. In the 1950s, state housing authorities built more than 100,000 dwellings – one in eight of all new homes at the time.
Could changing how we think about social housing serve as a starting point for a renaissance?
Policy advocates like the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) argue that social housing is actually a form of essential infrastructure. This is because it supports economic productivity and a range of other non-shelter outcomes.
Conceptually, we found a link between social housing and infrastructure: both operate as forms of spatially fixed, durable capital that enable economies and societies to work better.
Governments need to be involved in providing infrastructure to realise its full benefits – because of the scale of investment needed and because effects are spread across the community. In the same way, realising all the benefits of social housing requires government involvement.
Across Europe, especially in Finland, Austria and Scotland, we see social housing investment today undertaken in support of energy sustainability, economic stability, and social cohesion.
However, if social housing is to be considered as infrastructure, then proponents need to be more conversant with the practices and policies that sustain infrastructure investment. This includes developing credible, costed arguments to demonstrate the benefits of social housing relative to its cost. This isn’t easy – much that is relevant to the purpose of social housing and the people who live in it cannot be quantified or monetised.
These are not just surface beliefs – the norms and practices associated with them are embedded in the way bureaucracies and governments prepare and manage their budgets.
AHURI is presenting the inaugural Discussion Series event, Is Social Housing Infrastructure?, at the State Library Victoria, Melbourne, on Monday, 11 February 2019. A second event examining the same research topic will be held in Brisbane in March. More details are available here.
About the authors: Kathleen Flanagan is a research fellow and deputy director at HACRU, University of Tasmania.
Chris Martin is a research fellow, City Housing, UNSW.
Julie Lawson is an honorary associate professor at the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University.
Keith Jacobs is professor of sociology at the University of Tasmania.