Dear Group,
I would like to inform subscribers to the research that the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) is conducting with the Disability Studies and Research Institute (DSaRI), with the following title:
Keys to sustained tenancies: a critical appraisal of international and national approaches to housing and support for people with complex needs.
This project is situated in the context of providing responses to people with complex needs, in particular those who have disability, and those who have a mental illness, which will sustain their tenancies. The project broadly aims to understand what factors can work toward the "seamless" delivery of housing and support to people with complex needs. The notion of "seamless" delivery currently accepts a system-led understanding of two, separate service-based management and support delivery systems working cooperatively together to deliver successful housing and support "outcomes" to clients who fit the criteria of having complex needs. As such, there tends to be a focus on creating best-practice "models" of both housing and the support provided within housing to sustain both the tenancies of people with complex needs, and their broader wellbeing within the accommodation. Because of this focus, there is perhaps a more limited critique available than there might be of all the factors that impact on the success or otherwise of tenancy and support arrangements.
The research will adopt a social model perspective, viewing access to housing for people with disability as a right, and barriers to this access as largely the result of social barriers such as inadequate social planning, poor supplies of suitably adaptable, accessible housing stock, and the unfavourable income status of many people with disability, which prevents easy access to the housing market.
The focus will be on the range of 'general' housing options available in the community, including social housing, private rental, and the purchased housing market. The research will not be looking at group homes or congregate care models, or any specially provided housing that is part of a package of supported care options.
One of the tasks of the research is to understand what is happening overseas. However, like all research the scope is limited by resources and time, and at this point in the research information is sought from the UK, USA, Canada and possibly Scandinavia, about broad policy interactions that currently impact on housing options for people with disability. These would include:
a.. Housing policy and practice
b.. Disability support policy and practice
c.. Income support arrangements
d.. Broad governmental initiatives to address disability housing
The general assumption of the research is that the provision of suitable housing, and a range of options, cannot be dependent on restricted welfare-type programs, and instead requires much greater focus on general housing and planning policy. Suggestions of suitable models to address the housing and support needs of people with complex needs, therefore, need far greater scrutiny of the interplay of these "generalist" policies, before any "models" or arrangements can be assumed to work in any one jurisdiction.
Further information about the research, including the specific research questions, can be obtained by contacting:
Michael Bleasdale
Senior Researcher
Disability Studies and Research Institute
Email: [log in to unmask]
Michael Bleasdale
Senior Researcher
Disability Studies and Research Institute
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