New research estimates that 40,000 new social and affordable houses recently announced by the government will create an additional $4.4 billion benefit over the next 40 years.
Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have developed a tool to calculate the social, economic and environmental benefits of social and affordable housing.
“For far too long social and affordable housing has been seen almost as a welfare service,” says Wendy Hayhurst, CEO of Community Housing Industry Association, which commissioned the study.
“We have to start thinking about social and affordable housing as infrastructure, something that we’re investing in, so we get a return on that investment.”
The researchers — Associate Professor Christian Nygaard and Dr Trevor Kollmann — plugged in the 40,000 social and affordable houses promised through the government’s National Housing Accord and Housing Australia Future Fund into their calculator and found it estimated $4.4 billion worth of wider benefit over the next four decades.
“You can build social and affordable housing just on the basis of the rents that you would achieve from these properties,” said Dr Nygaard.
“What we’re trying to show is that in addition to those rents, you’re actually getting all of this social value as well.
“We hope it’s going to make better economic cases for investing in social affordable housing.”
Nicole Gurran, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Sydney, is not convinced this kind of tool can accurately quantify these benefits.
“Where do you even begin to try and assess the economic benefit of a secure roof over the head of a small child?” she said.
Dr Gurran says there is “moral case” to be made for affordable housing, especially in a wealthy country like Australia.
She says she finds it “ironic” that, despite Australia’s wealth, “we can’t find it in ourselves to address the housing needs of people on very low incomes”.
The new tool — called the Social Infrastructure and Green Measures for Affordable Housing (SIGMAH) calculator — provides government, community housing organisations and the broader social and affordable housing sector with a robust tool to estimate Wider Social and Economic Benefits, said a press release from the Community Housing Industry Association.
This allows decision makers to understand how much less public expenditure a government will incur from areas such as health, policing, and community services by making homes available to those who need them.
The calculator also estimates private benefits such as higher consumption, income and educational attainment.
(ABC)
