Spatial concentrations of socially and economically disadvantaged people, particularly in large cities, have been the subject of considerable policy debates in Australia over the past 30 years. A variety of terms have been used in these debates including: urban poverty, locational disadvantage, socio-economic disadvantage, social exclusion and concentrations of welfare dependency.

As home ownership rates decline across all age cohorts, the suboptimal quantity, allocation, and security of housing opportunities in the rental market has received increasing policy attention. To date, fiscal strategies for attracting investment towards rental housing have had limited success, especially in attracting institutional investors to this sector.

Description This project looked at transfers in three jurisdictions (New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria) and involved in-depth interviews with stakeholders and focus groups with former public housing tenants that transferred to not-for-profit landlords.

This Investigative Panel considered private financing models that can deliver additional supplies of quality, well located rental housing in areas of need that is affordable to low- and moderate-income households. This included provision initiated by both for–profit and not–for–profit providers, as well as cross sector partnerships.