Procuring Social and Affordable Housing

Abstract

Currently, there is a severe shortage of affordable rental and social housing to properly meet the needs of Australians. State governments, as the main suppliers of social housing, struggle to find the resources to provide the additional properties that are needed to address this shortage and private sector participation is also well below what is required. In order to improve conditions, on-going access issues to housing and associated support services need to be addressed. New and innovative approaches are required for both social housing for the most vulnerable and affordable housing for others in need. How to better address the social benefits of providing safe and secure housing whilst increasing supply and improving associated services through innovative procurement strategies requires further exploration to balance objectives along the housing supply chain. This SBEnrc research has considered the strengths and weaknesses of various social procurement approaches for social and affordable community rental housing in Australia against the backdrop of parallel research into changing demographics and housing typologies, and funding and financing models. From this, a set of social procurement criteria have been developed to assist those responsible for both policy development, and asset and service delivery with, for example, selecting among projects on the basis of their likely added social benefits.