Summary

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) commissioned an evaluation consortium to undertake an evaluation of the NSW Future Directions for Social Housing policy reform. Future Directions aims to create more social housing across NSW, create more opportunities for people to exit social housing, and foster a better social housing experience. The evaluation consortium was comprised of: University of Melbourne – Melbourne Institute (lead), CIRCA, Centre for Evidence and Implementation, RMIT and Monash University.

Research Approach

The consortium used a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design to evaluate the Future Directions policy. The design is one with an integrated, dual focus on assessing effectiveness and implementation of Future Directions. CIRCA’s contribution to this evaluation centred on capturing the tenant experience of the three housing programs under the Future Directions policy reform. That is, their satisfaction with their housing, their housing provider, and services available, as well as the impact of the new housing on various aspects of their life (i.e., health, financial status, education, employment, social relationships), and their likelihood to move on from social housing to private rental or home ownership.

The evaluation consortium jointly developed an Evaluation Framework and Evaluation Plan for each of the four major elements of the Future Directions policy reform, complete with program logic, evaluation questions, data collection and analysis methods, and evaluation strategy.

The consortium sought and received ethics approval for this research through the NSW Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council Human Research Ethics Committee and the University of Melbourne’s Human Research Ethics Committee. CIRCA also sought permission to enter country for the purpose of this research from appropriate local Aboriginal controlled community organisations and Land Councils.
CIRCA conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 180 social housing tenants. Tenants represented a mix of tenants from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, CALD and mainstream backgrounds. Tenants from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or CALD backgrounds were matched with a Research Consultant from their own cultural or language group, unless the participants asked not to be. Interviews conducted with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants used the Indigenous evaluation approach of “yarning” to both put respondents at ease and to elicit data that speak holistically to their experiences.

Research Findings and Outcomes

CIRCA’s evaluation findings identified varying levels of effectiveness of the program and tenants’ experience of outcomes. CIRCA’s findings were integrated into the consortium’s review of the administration of the program and other outcome data, to inform DCJ as to the successes and challenges associated with the social housing reforms, and areas for potential program and policy review.

The Final reports for each of the Future Directions areas are publicly available here: https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/about-us/facsiar/facsiar-publications-and-resources/future-directions-for-social-housing-in-nsw-evaluation.html