Housing Policy and Practice

The Housing Policy and Practice sub-program encompasses the continuation of much of the housing research undertaken by the City Futures team. This program has developed in large part through its success within the AHURI network, into one of the strongest groupings of housing researchers – at all stages in their career – within Australia.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute is a national research organisation established in 2000 that specialises in housing and urban research and policy. Funded by the Commonwealth and State Governments, it comprises a central management office (AHURI Ltd) and a network of 15 participating universities, collaborating in 7 Research Centres, who undertake the research on a competitive funding basis. The University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney are collaborators in a joint Research Centre.

AHURI develops an annual Research Agenda against which bids for funding are made. It also funds a number of three year research programs known as Collaborative Research Ventures (NRVs) each involving a number of collaborating centres. The UNSW-UWS Research Centre has been very successful in obtaining research grants since the inception of AHURI in 2000 and is an active participant in two of the NRVs.

AHURI funding will continue to provide a vital stream of funding for work in this area, boosted by the recent award of the prestigious Multi Year Research Project (MYRP) on Addressing Concentrations of Social Disadvantage – a 30-month, $700,000 research program commencing in August 2011 and completing with an International Symposium in February 2014.  Other research has been generated through an ongoing partnership with Housing NSW including high level policy development and review work.