Housing Research

Understanding Overcrowding in South Western Sydney
Shelter NSW
JSA is working with Shelter NSW and its community partners to undertake research to better understand and document overcrowding in South Western Sydney, a rapidly growing but under-researched form of homelessness.
Household overcrowding can have adverse impacts for occupants due to inadequate space within the dwelling for living, sleeping and household activities. Stresses associated with household overcrowding have been associated with adverse physical and mental health impacts for occupants across different cultures and in developed and developing countries around the world.
The objectives of the study are to identify and describe the characteristics of people living in overcrowded dwellings in South Western Sydney, to articulate and understand their housing experiences and needs and to develop and recommend solutions that would help to address these identified housing needs.
The study will focus on recent migrants and university students in the culturally and linguistically diverse Canterbury-Bankstown LGA.

Responding to Housing Challenges in Regional NSW
Community Housing Industry Association of NSW (CHIA NSW)
Community Housing Providers delivering social and affordable housing in regional and rural areas of NSW face different challenges and pressures to their metropolitan Sydney counterparts. Regional providers operate over vast geographic areas, deliver services and housing in communities with more variable rental markets due to employment that is highly reliant on agricultural and/or resource extractive industries that are often subject to market fluctuations, changes in policy, or seasonal/climatic variation such as significant drought events.
CHIA NSW engaged JSA to work in partnership with two regional CHPs, Argyle Housing and Housing Plus, to develop place-based affordable housing strategies for two of their local areas, Leeton Shire Council and the City of Orange. This work involved a detailed demographic and housing demand/supply analysis, a review and understanding of the local policy context, consultations with providers and local stakeholders and the development of a set of tools for other providers operating in regional and rural areas to assist them to undertake their own place-based planning.

Affordable Housing Needs Assessment for Inner Metropolitan Melbourne Councils
Inner Metro Partnership (City of Melbourne, City of Port Phillip and City of Yarra) – Affordable Housing Working Group
JSA developed a robust and consistent methodology to calculate affordable housing need at the local and regional level for the three inner metropolitan councils in Melbourne. The development of the methodology was informed by best practice, a review of work previously undertaken for the three Councils and substantial additional research by JSA.
The development and application of the methodology is the first stage in a broader process by the Inner Metro Partnership , which will investigate and develop planning mechanisms to facilitate the provision of affordable housing in the three local government areas. JSA’s research provides the evidence based and strategic justification to support this work.

Multi-Tenure Developments: Best Practice Approaches to Design, Development and Management
Community Housing Industry Association NSW

This guide presents an overview of ‘best practice’ for multi-tenure developments based on extensive research of projects that bring together social, affordable and private housing in new developments that deliver vibrant communities that work well for different people. Through case studies, the report provides excellent insights into the key design, development and management approaches of a range of successful multi-tenure developments in the UK and Australia.
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Building Community Support for Community Housing
Community Housing Industry Association NSW

JSA undertook extensive research about the reasons for community resistance to affordable housing, and effective ways of building support for it.
The research set out the need, demand and key barriers to affordable housing development and explored community and institutional resistance to new affordable housing through the planning to post-occupancy journey of 15 affordable housing developments. Case studies included detailed desktop analysis and door-knock surveys of neighbours and local businesses to better understand their pre- and post- development perceptions and experiences.
This comprehensive research has been refined into an online Tool Kit of resources, tools and videos for practitioners and anyone interested in building support for affordable housing in the community.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Transitional Housing as a Homelessness Intervention
Wollongong Women’s Housing

JSA carried out research for a specialist homelessness service in Wollongong funded by the NSW Government’s Going Home Staying Home program. The research evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of existing service interventions used by the service in achieving and maintaining secure, long-term housing outcomes for women who were homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness; and whether there are different long-term housing outcomes for women who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness with different personal characteristics, independent of the type of service intervention they receive.

The research was profiled in the November 2016 edition of the Council to Homeless Persons’ national magazine, Parity.