What Is Happening In Australian Housing Markets?

The Importance of Housing Support and Homelessness

The increase in the rate of housing support in Australia throughout the past decades has been one of the major social concern and has coincided with the timeframe of unprecedented prosperity. According to the supported accommodation assistance act of 1994, housing is fundamental to all the individual and the context of housing has a significant influence on certain social and economic aspects of the society. The Australian Bureau of statistics recognizes housing as the main factor towards the effectiveness of the welfare system of Australia (Australian Government, 2017). There is a number of characteristics which are connected and related to the context of housing and to an individual who has been homeless for long.  This paper focuses on the area of social responsibility on the topic of housing support by the Australian Government and the policy approach towards the issue of housing support and homelessness among the citizens of Australia.

Critically analyze the theoretical and ideological underpinnings of the policy approach taken by the Australian Government in relation to one area of social responsibility

Housing support is a complex issue that impacts on the lives of many Australians. From the social perspective,the context of housing provides a stable and a solid base that enables active patipation in the society.Furthermore,housing eables an individual to develop families and enjoy their retired life happily. From an economic perspective,the concept of housing holds a significant impact in the productivity,rate of participation and the level of investment and consumptionin the economy. Long-term, organized efforts within the sectors and the community are essential for addressing the issue realte to housing and homelssness. In Australia,  the Commonwealth supports the state and the governments of the territory by providing services to people with proper schemes of funding by the National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA). According To the budget of 2017-2018, the government of Austalia has been working with the territories and the states for reforming NAHA which will result in an increase in the supply of improved and developed homes and address to the issue of housing outcomes for all the affected Australians (Australian Government, 2017). Furthermore, the NAHA that was established by the Australian Government Council provides a wide package for the purpose of investment for the housing. It includes targeted and additional fundings on housing support, indigenous housing, and social housing policy (Morris, Jamieson & Patulny, 2012).

As per the government of Australia, the main aim of the NAHA is to form a whole-governmental approach for the provision of the accessible, affordable, sustainable and safe housing plan for all the Australians. The strategy of funding as depicted by the government of Australia underpins the commitments of the housing policy that are stated in the White Paper. The white, on the other hand, is an ambitious policy document that includes goals and targets which are worthy of praise. The two major goals of the white paper as published by the government of Australia are halving of the housing issue by 2020 in the nation and provision of accommodation to all the people with housing support by the targeted year of 2020 (Australian Government, 2017). The theoretical underpinnings of the policy of housing support in Australia in the current scenario focus on the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA) that is expected to increase the supply of newer homes and improve the housing and the homelessness outcomes for all the people (Saunders, 2007). The NHHA is expected to provide certainty for the services related to housing support with a $375.3 million over three consecutive years. According to the government of Australia, this funding will certainly be beneficial for the improvement of the housing of the people an will prioritize to enable support for the individual who is affected by the homelessness and the adjacent issue like domestic violence and more (Australian Government, 2017). The government of Australia has also committed $ 23 million for reconnecting programs which enables assistance to Australians and young individuals who are the risk of issues related to housing support.

Australian Government Policy Towards Housing Support and Homelessness

One of the ideological underpinnings of the government of Australia in the context of homelessness in Australia is ‘reconnect’. It is a community-based prevention and intervention program for the young individuals between the age of 12 to 18 years who are mostly homeless or who are at the risk of being homeless. The governmental program, ‘reconnect’ enables in assisting young people for stabilizing their current livelihood and improving their rate of engagement with the community and their family, education, training, and employment. Furthermore, the theoretical underpinning of the homelessness policy by the government targets to provide support to the front line services that aim to address homelessness.

The government of Australia furthermore announced a bunch of initiatives in the 2017-2018 budget plan of the nation for developing alternative sources of capital for affordable and social housing. The budget plan included revenue amount of $30 million for the impact on social investment initiatives, among which $10.2 million was reserved for use in the development and improvement of the welfare and housing of the people (Australian Government, 2017). Furthermore, the funding from the commonwealth will enable support for the development of the capability of the organization for delivering the homes for homes initiative.

The approaches to the issue of homelessness by the government of Australia is far better than the practice in the other countries. This is because the current explanation in Australia is robust, evidence-based and considers homeless pathways and the cultural background of the people of the nation who are at the risk of homelessness (Jamrozik, 2009). While it has not been fully possible for the government of Australia to eliminate the homeless population and address the issues related to homelessness, the supported assistance program for the national data collection accommodation and the national census of the five-year plan proved to be useful and beneficial in providing accurate statistics on homeless people. The provision of the comprehensive statistics by the government of Australia helps both the government and non-governmental agencies to strategically respond to the issue of homelessness (Johnson & Watson, 2017).

Another of the most significant development in Australia is the development and introduction of the strategic approaches towards the programs and the policy. These are the national homelessness strategy, introduced by the Australian Department of Family and Community Services and the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness (Australian Government, 2017).

Some of the related concerns on the topic of the implementation of the policy on the homelessness by the government of Australia includes non-consideration of NHS as an effective strategy but a number of programs and initiatives in the context. There lies a wide opportunity to include much more united response towards the issue of homelessness in Australia (Bailie & Wayte, 2006). One of the major benefits of strategic response can be the inclusion of the evaluation as the need for the provision of the program. This approach will further help the government of Australia to determine the success of the demonstration projects and the strategies for providing a clear benchmark to assess the effectiveness of the program for the development of further responses and strategies.

Theoretical and Ideological Underpinnings of Australian Government Policy

The Australian government has been continuously initiating changes and development in the policies for alleviating and reducing the rate of homelessness. The concept of homelessness is a dynamic and complex phenomenon and according to the policies and procedures of the government of Australia, the issues arising due to the homelessness cannot be evaluated and addressed by initiatives that are single focused (Carson & Kerr,  2014). Despite of helping for alleviation of the issue of homelessness, the government of Australia can further play an important role by initiating support to the community consultation in the development of the policy, supporting researchers that are evidence-based and evaluation of the programs for the determination of their effectiveness in the development of further strategies and response to resolve the issue of homelessness in Australia (Robinson, 2002).

One of the successful model implemented by the government of Australia for the successful reduction in the risk of homelessness is the Household Organisation Management Expenses (HOME) Advice Program. The advice program by the government agencies helps to resolve the issues related to the debt of the tenants and addresses other requirements of the family (Carson & Kerr, 2014). The HOME advice program has resulted in the reduction of the risk of homelessness and has significantly improved the outcomes related to housing and finance for all the families who are at the risk of homelessness. The government of Australia furthermore provides tenancy support process to prevent the issue of homelessness (Bessant et al., 2006). The homeless programs as administered by the government of Australia has their own collection method of data. These include the view of the client, goals, and situation at the commencement and completion of support. Furthermore, National Affordable Housing Specific Purpose Payment (NAHSPP) by the government of Australia targets specific justification and priorities that includes planning,target supply and public housing stocks.

One of the major drawback to the current commitment of the government of Australia towards addressing homelessness is the failure to commit to the ongoing funding program that created significant challenges for SHS (Morris, Jamieson & Patulny, 2012). Furthermore, the government of Australia failed to link the NPAH funding to any indexation which in turn resulted in the reduction of the funding revenue.

The five core strategic areas to address the issue of homelessness are the following.

o Housing	· To ensure affordable and adequate housing. · To ensure the supply of housing for meeting the requirements of those who need it (Bridgman & Davis, 2004). · Having various pathways in permanent housing and various housing options with effective services of support
o Prevention	· To focus on the prevention and the early intervention. · To ensure effective development services, systems and social responses for ensuring that the people who are at the risk of homelessness have enough support (Carson & Kerr,  2014). · Involvement of the improving recognition of the health value of the home
o Strong and co-ordinated response	· Introduction of 27 X 7 no wrong door system for the delivery of responsive actions within various health support systems and communities to ensure that they are well co-ordinated and act on a quick basis.
o Targets,data and the research	· To improve data, the evidence, the systems knowledges, the accountability of the social support systems and the health systems for successful achievement of goals of the strategy. · Furthermore, development of the evidence base around the value of home is essential to have clear targets and ensured delivery.
o Developing the community capacity	· To source the solutions to the issue from those people who have experiences of homelessness. · Sectors supporting experienced vulnerability and disadvantages broadens their capacity to diminish the issue of homelessness (Woods, 2004). · To develop broad public movements and inclusion of all the community members who have the keen interest to end homelessness must be accumulated for ensuring targeted success.

Ø The Responsibility	· To end homelessness is the collective responsibility . · The persons who are experiencing homelessness should produce their knowledge and experiences for the effective solutions for ending the issues of homelessness.
Ø The effective approach to Housing	· The primary driver of the issues of homelessness is the affordability of the housing. Hence the reduction of the issues related to affordability and increase in the availability of the housing to the homless people can achieve the target to trigger out homelessness. · To objectify to help the people who are experiencing homlessnes so that they gain a permanat stable place like home and address their health and social requirements.
Ø The approach to enable support	· To support the homeless people regarding their health and social issues and support for the gain in employment purposes for their long term financial security. · To prioritize the vulnerable group of population who are experiencing long term homelessness and related issues like domestic violence on aboriginal women and children  for initiating actions to end homelessness.
Ø The approach to funding	· Essential to develop a 10 year strategy funding to meet the requirements and the objectives to target the issues of homelessness and the related problems of the people who have been homeless for too long (Australian Government, 2017). · Requirement of skilled and well trained workforce and an well funded non profit sector for the successful achievement of the objective to end homelessness.

Strengthening the response of the people who are at the risk of homelessness is extremely important. The national homelessness strategy of the government of Australia must ensure the commitment of the resource for the maintenance and advancement of the development of the ongoing development and cost-effective responsive models. Relating to the profession of a social worker, some of the theoretical underpinnings of the approaches towards the social policy approaches in the context of homelessness is the social work systems theory (Morris, Jamieson, & Patulny, 2012). The system theory in the context of this approach tends to explain the behavior of the human as the connection of the influences of multiple interrelated systems. According to the main concept of the theory, all the systems are interconnected parts that constitute a whole and tends to influence the other connected parts.

National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA)

Furthermore, grounded method theory also fits well in the area of social justice. Created by Anselm L. Strauss and Barney G. Glaser, this theory is applicable to the sustansive areas of social inequality and social justice like the context of homelessness (Bessant et al., 2006). The grounded theory method includes simultaneous collection of data to successfully analyze the connection aming the human agncy and social structures that pose pratical and theoretical concerns in the study of social justice related to homelessness.

Some of the recommended policy focus that needs to be addressed by the government of Australia for targeting the issue of homelessness includes the following:

• The building of an effective affordable housing system
• The increase in the supply of the social and community housing
• The supply and incentvising of the role of the private sector in the provision of the affordable housing (Australian Government, 2017)
• The provision of the diversed range of housing options for enabing response to the homelessness
• Facilitation to the access to the private rental markets

Some of the key actions that need to be taken and addressed for an effective outcome regarding the issue of homelessness and the problems the people are facing include the following.

The lived experienced groups should be supported with in-kind resources and financial aids for ensuring that their voices are heard, their problems are understood and attempted to be resolved by the social workers of the governmental agencies (Carson & Kerr, 2014). Furthermore, the development of a community toolkit is essential which can be utilized to educate the community of the Australia regarding the issues and problems of homelessness and the required actions that need to be taken to trigger the issue (Johnson & Watson, 2017). Establishment of local government for working on the group of homelessness for drawing a common and basic pool of resources is also important (Woods, 2004). The key actions also include implementation of public survey for understanding the required changes in the context of Australian homelessness, the establishment of backbone organization for addressing and abolishing the topic of homelessness with a capability to receive funding and foreign aid to the management of actions to improve the lifestyle of the homeless people. Furthermore,  one of the important action that needs to be taken by the government of Australia and the social workers in the context of homelessness is to ensure that the people who do not have a shelter get their basic rights for the necessities of living, have access to safe water for drinking and sanitation and have basic amenities of their livelihood. It is furthermore the responsibility of the social worker to ensure that the children and the women are safe from any kind of domestic violence and other community abuses which may result due to homelessness.

Reconnect Program

Conclusion 

The government of Australia plays a significant role in the maket of housing.The initial level constitutes of the structural base where the Australian government determines the framewoek of the policy for effective operation of the entire market. The final level constitutes the direct interventions in the situations where the Australian market is unable to give appropriate outcomes for the vulnerable group of people like the homeless. Various and diversed factors contribute to the issues arising from the context of housing matters in the continent of Australia. The department of the social services continue to improve the matters of housing in the market of Australia.Some of the noted agreements on the current housing and homeless programs by the Australian government includes national affordable housing agreement, national rental affordability scheme, commonwealth rent assistance, housing affordability fund and the building better regional cities program. Furthermore,there lies various other challenges for the further development of the existing policies and strategies of the government so that it can initiate and provide innovative and comprehensive solution to the issues related to housing support.

References

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