Social and Affordable Housing Investment Tool

The purpose of the Social and Affordable Housing Investment Tool is to provide a rigorous, evidence-based business case to justify investment in social and social affordable housing in Australia. The provision of social and affordable housing isn’t just about the cost of the built asset but about the holistic benefits of provision. The value of this tool is that it takes this form of expansive approach, with outcomes and indicators included across nine impact domains and three context domains. It addresses the complexity of defining the benefits to individuals, the community and government of providing safe and secure housing for all in order to better demonstrate the benefits of investment. As such the tool will help with identifying the current funding gap between the traditional cost-based approach and this benefits-based approach. The source tool consolidates over 240 indicators, both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The aim has been to provide measurable and meaningful indicators to provide evidence to support existing and evolving practice. Due to data shortfalls and issues with data sharing, problems exist with quantifying much of the intrinsic benefits of housing, but this limitation remains important in providing an aspirational guidepost to future data gathering and use. The use of qualitative indicators as equals to quantitative ones is intended to better define benefits, enabling more informed policy and investment-making and delivery.