This paper outlines a Collaborative Research Venture (CRV) that focus of which is the relationships between housing assistance (HA) and non-shelter outcomes.
The housing system and housing assistance interventions not only aim to meet the housing needs, they also contribute to higher level outcomes, such as improved social and economic well being for individuals families and communities.
Government is seeking a better understanding of the contribution of the contribution that housing assistance interventions make to improving peoples' lives. There is a need for government to more fully understand which attributes of housing assistance made a difference to the quality of people's lives. The policy outcomes sought include and understanding of the importance of different aspects of housing and housing assistance, a more sophisticated whole of government understanding of the outcomes of housing intervention, and how and for whom housing assistance can be delivered and used as a tool to achieve a range of broad social and economic policy objectives.
The CRV has been informed by a systematic review of the research literature concerned with the relationship between HA and non shelter outcomes. The study will present a comprehensive listing of what we know about the impacts of HA on non-shelter outcomes such as dis/incentives to work and education, health, crime, income and wealth distribution and rates of poverty as well as housing market effects. The CRV proposes to focus on the relationship between HA and economic participation outcomes, where the latter is broadly defined to include employment, retirement, education and training decisions.