9.1 – Week 9 Overview
By the end of this week, you will explore the topics in two parts:
Part 1.Housing affordability and homelessness
Part 2.Housing and homelessness: Media portrayals of housing affordability and homelessness
You will also:
Participate inon-campus lectureFriday 12-2pm Rm KG-F509oronline live-streamto engage with learning
Participate in tutorial sessions (discussion forums)
Before We Start…
INCLUDEPICTURE “https://canvas.qut.edu.au/courses/18418/files/4550763/preview” * MERGEFORMATINET
Image:Rose/Adobe Stock
Affordable Housing
INCLUDEPICTURE “https://canvas.qut.edu.au/courses/18418/files/4575512/preview” * MERGEFORMATINET
Aug 2, 2022, Political Cartoon
The critical questions are:Can the affordability of housing for every family be met in free-market conditions? Do the social and structural conditions point to the need for more social and community housing – and strong government intervention?
9.2 – Preparation
Each week, there will be something for you to read, watch, complete and participate in. All the information for Week 9 is available here.
1.Watch
MUST WATCH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9basFvT0zY2. Read
2a) Read Carson and Kerr (2020), Chapter9. Find a quote that makes you think and share it in your tutorial or the lecture
2b) Optional Reading if you are researching your response to your chosen policy area in assessment.Van Krieken et al. on urbanization pp. 112-113, 221, 268.
2c) To develop a clearer understanding of housing policy at Federal Government, please read on. If you are confused about’who’s responsible? Housing policyLinks to an external site….(The Conversation, 2017)’ then you aren’t alone. The researchers in this article set out to answer that very research question – just who is responsible for housing policy? This is a great read that helps clarify some of the complexity around housing policy framework and jurisdictional issues. A must read.
3. Listen
Neoliberal housing policyLinks to an external site.- a history (ABC Radio, Feb 2020). By Jonathan Green on Blueprint
A must listen and read on housing policy and impact of neoliberalism. ‘The Walking Back on Welfare’
Abstract: The problems of housing crises, gentrification, homelessness, unfettered real estate capital and unregulated development are hardly unfamiliar issues. Their effects are everywhere apparent in the modern city. For many, they are considered simply the unfortunate but inevitable cost of urban life. Keith Jacobs argues that the housing crisis is neither inevitable nor permanent and offers an historical account of how we got here.
Keith Jacobs, Professor of Sociology, University of Tasmania and author ofNeoliberal Housing Policy: An International Perspective
9.5 – Key Concepts
Several key concepts you will need to understand. Below is a list of the key terms for Week 8.
Term Definition
Housing affordability Access to adequate and affordable housing is basic human right under the UNICESCR.
Housing is a vehicle for achieving safe and secure shelter. Housing affordability relates to a person’s capacity to meet costs associated with housing based on their income. There is a connection between household income and household spending on housing.
Everyone should have access to a habitable dwelling (liveable shelter) that is safe and secure, and supplied with utilities (water and sanitation, energy for warmth or cooling and for cooking food).
Social Housing Provided by not-for-profit, non-government organisations or government agencies that provide eligible housaeholds, housing with rent set below market rates (based on % of income).
Types of social housing include: public housing, state-owned and managed Indigenous housing, community housing and Indigenous community housing.
Homelessness Definitions Primary homelessnessis experienced by people without conventional accommodation (sleeping rough or in improvised dwellings, squatting in unoccupied buildings)
Secondary homelessnessis experienced by people who frequently move from one temporary shelter to another (emergency accommodation, youth refuges, ‘couch surfing’)
Tertiary homelessnessis experienced by people staying in accommodation that fails minimum community standards (boarding houses, housing projects)
Marginal homelessness: is experienced by people who rent a caravan in a caravan park
Gentrification Emerging from 1970s, it refers to the settlement by the middle class of former working residential areas; places located and near the CBD. The middle and higher classes refurbished old working class housing and made them into sites for consumption. New wave of settlement since 1980, where people moving into newly built apartments, townhouses and condominiums. Old office blocks, factories or warehouses (commercial centre of former working class suburbs) have been converted into apartments or townhouses – e.g. the old wool stores along the river.
End of Week 9
Interested in doing housing policy for your essay or wanting to broaden your knowledge? Then read these articles.
ABC NewsLinks to an external site.’How housing made rich Australians 50 per cent richer, leaving renters and the young behind and how to fix it’By Brendan Coates and Joey Moloney,Mon 9 Jan 2023.
Want to know more about negative gearing and inequality? Then read on and view ‘Negative gearing should exclude wealthy property investors from tax breaks: AHURI’,Links to an external site.ABC News, March 7, 2018.
Wanting inspiration for an alternative vision for assessment 2. Then this article is for you: ‘Build social and affordable housing to get us off the boom-and-bust rollercoasterLinks to an external site.’ The Conversation, 15 March 2019.
Success criteria: You will know you have been successful when you can demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of Australias housing policy explain the nature of unequal housing policy and issues of affordability and homelessness critique current housing policy in terms of its implications for vulnerable groups specify the links between government responses to housing policy and the contested concepts of welfare
Useful Sources for Assessment 2 (PICK FROM THESE)
Bullen, J. (2015). Governing homelessness: the discursive and institutionalconstruction of homelessness in Australia. Housing, Theory and Society,32(2), 218-239. Jacobs, K. (2015). A reverse form of welfarism: Some reflections onAustralian housing policy. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 50(1), 53-68. Mays, J. (2021). Reframing a New Politics of Distributive Justice andHousing Equity in Australia: How lessons from postwar and neoliberal erasprovide opportunities for a reinvigorated political commitment touniversal, socially just alternatives. Social Alternatives, 40,(4), 40-47. Pawson, I. (2018). Reframing Australia’s affordability problem: The politicsand economics of negative gearing. Journal of Australian PoliticalEconomy, 81, 121-143. (article available online via QUT Library)54
Useful Sources for Assessment 2 Ferreira, R. R. (2016). Stepping stones to an exclusionary model of home ownership inAustralia. The Journal of Australian Political Economy, 77, 79-109. Forrest and Hirayama, 2014 Forrest, R. and Hirayama, Y. (2014) The Financialisation of theSocial Project: Embedded Liberalism, Neoliberalism and Home Ownership, Urban StudiesJournal Foundation: 1-12. Groenhart, L., & Burke, T. (2014). What has happened to Australia’s public housing? thirty yearsof policy and outcomes, 1981 to 2011. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 49(2), 127-149,241. Knight, B. (2020). Has the coronavirus pandemic proved that homelessness is solvable? ABCNews, 8 June 2020. See also AHURI (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute) reportshttps://www.ahuri.edu.au/ – eg reimagining social housing Parsell, C. (2020). Housing Journal Podcast. International Journal of Housing Policy, HousingStudies, Housing Theory and Society. Episode 8, Part 2, May 2020. Parsell, C., Petersen, M., & Culhane, D. (2016). Cost offsets of supportive housing: Evidence for social work. The British Journal of Social Work, 47 (5): 1534-1553.
SWB108 Assessment Task 2 – Discussion Forum: Details
Overview
Task description
Taking the role of practitioners in the field, you are presenting your essay framework to your peers in a tutorial discussion forum, simulating a professional forum. You will provide an outline of your critical analysis (critical lens and theory), your chosen essay policy topic relevant to real world practice, associated policy problems or effects on vulnerable groups and your proposed alternative policy vision. Feedback from the discussion forum will inform development of your essay (assessment 3). You are also expected to ask questions and provide feedback to your peers during their essay framework presentations. The sessions are held during tutorials betweenWeeks 8 and 12. InWeek 7 tutorialyou will identify a week to schedule your discussion in.
This is an authentic assessment because it mirrors discussion sessions in team meetings where you share ideas and identify potential alternative solutions to problems.
Length
Timed leading of 3-5 minute discussion.
Learning outcomes measured
ULO 1 Describe essential normative, structural and institutional foundations of Australian society in relation to global context and the welfare state
ULO 2 Critically analyse important contemporary Australian social issues, discourses and social policy responses in relation to global context using critical theory
ULO 4 Explain and critically reflect on the relevance of knowledge of Australian society for real world professional practice
What you need to do
Determine your topic of your essay and conduct your topic research.
Identify a week to deliver your discussion presentation and schedule it in. (Select one week between weeks 8 and 12 inclusive). The tutor will have a schedule to add your name.
Prepare your discussion for the discussion forum, ensuring you outline your framework (dot points). Your framework should detail:
Your critical analysis approach (critical lens and theory)
Chosen essay policy topic
Purpose of the policy including a brief statement on how it is delivered
The policy problems or effects on vulnerable groups (you can include policy principles and ideology)
Proposed alternative policy vision based on social justice principles
Rehearse your oral discussion and make editing changes. Remember it is only 3-5 minutes, so you can discuss for 3 minutes and ask for feedback for 2 minutes.
Think about possible questions your audience may have about your topic and consider your responses to those questions.
Following the session, reflect upon your discussion presentation and feedback received from your tutor to incorporate it into your essay.
Upload the one-page dot point discussion forum framework to Canvas (see below submission requirements).
Resources available to complete the task
Lectures (Weeks 6-12)
CRA sheets
Instructions in class (from Week 7)
Earlier lectures for contextual information
QUT readings
The Criterion Reference Assessment (CRA) Rubric that markers use to grade the assessment task is included and you should use this as a guide when working on the assessment task. Download theDiscussion Forum CRADownload Discussion Forum CRA