Approaches to Evaluation of Affordable Housing Initiatives in Australia. National Research Venture 3: Housing Affordability for Lower Income Australians, Research Paper No. 7

This report first provides an overview of ideas and developments in evaluation theory and methods, drawing mainly on a recent proposal by two sociologists, Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley (1997). These authors have called for a more realistic approach to evaluation of social policies in the face of what they assess to be disappointing outcomes of evaluation research so far in the field – especially poor research methods, a lack of priority setting, failure to accumulate results and a limited voice in policy making. The second part of the report considers objectives and possible mechanisms for a national strategy that aims to improve housing affordability. While there have been several recent policy initiatives that aim to address housing affordability issues, particularly from State governments around Australia, it is not yet clear what any future larger scale and nationally coordinated approach might entail. The next part of the report uses a supply side initiative – the development of below market rent housing – to demonstrate how an evaluation of a typical affordable housing project might be conducted, and to illustrate some key evaluation techniques and methods. This illustration is followed by an analytical review of three one-off evaluation studies that recently have been undertaken in the field. The purpose of including these examples is to explore the application of evaluation to actual situations, to consider what assessment against the objectives shows and to draw out the lessons for policy and practice that can be learnt from evaluation. Finally, the report proposes a model for implementing a proactive, systematic and achievable program of evaluation, suitable for application to both current and prospective policy initiatives that aim to increase the access to affordable housing of low and moderate income households in Australia.