This report investigates the current challenges in providing social housing to people with complex support needs, and potential alternative policy responses.
• Social housing registries, or waiting lists, are large and growing, and made up of people with a diverse range of housing needs. The potential to support people with complex needs and housing needs is undermined by the size and diversity of these registries.
• In the context of this report, complex support needs are those experienced by people with needs related to housing and other aspects of life—for example, health or disability.
• Supporting social housing providers (SHPs)—along with housing providers in other sectors—form partnerships with health, mental health and disability support agencies could result in improved service quality and client outcomes.
• Social housing and service providers continue to report unmet service needs and workforce capacity gaps in working with clients with complex support needs.
• Resource limitations are a barrier to intensive support provision. They constrain assessment, referral and intake from social housing registries to support services.
• The number of first-time applicants to social housing registries is growing, due to the ongoing housing crisis. This presents additional challenges in responding to the needs of people with complex needs.
You can read the report here