Stable homes, stronger futures

Since the 21st century began, housing availability and affordability has become one of Australia’s largest social problems. Secure accommodation has always been a challenge for Australians in crisis, but today the issue affects people in many walks of life.

“We are now seeing a situation where some people on very good working wages, with incomes above the median, simply cannot get access to stable, quality housing,” says Professor Louise Crabtree-Hayes, a human geographer at Western Sydney University’s Institute for Culture and Society.

Despite the scale of the problem, there are signs of hope. For years, the residents of Australian housing co-operatives have reported a range of positive experiences. Co-operatives are unique because their occupants — whether they rent or own — participate in management and maintenance activities that can include co-operative governance, finance, membership, property care and community life.

Housing co-operative sectors for rent or ownership have been successful at scale in other countries. In fact, the United Nations declared both 2012 and 2025 the International Year of Co-operatives. However, if Australian housing providers and policymakers are to treat co-operatives as a viable option, their benefits must be captured through robust research methods.

Now, in an unprecedented study, Crabtree-Hayes and her colleagues have created a report, The Value of Housing Co-operatives in Australia, documenting the benefits of Australia’s affordable rental housing co-operatives. The report provides grounds to expand housing co-operatives in Australia through both rental and ownership models, to improve the benefits of social housing and have a significant impact on the overall housing market and the lives of many.

BEYOND THE BINARY
“In Australia we have an incredibly simplistic binary,” says Crabtree-Hayes. “We have private, market-rate homeownership, which is seen as the only way to achieve stability, equity and dignity — and we have rental models that are either privatised and precarious, or public and marginalised.”

Although renting has traditionally been viewed as a step on the path to ownership, going from renting to owning has become an “impossible leap” for many, she says, with diverse negative consequences for communities, as well as individuals. Housing co-operatives, however, are an exception to the binary, as their members have a say in their housing, regardless of whether they rent or own.

Having previously served on the boards of housing co-operative peak bodies in NSW, Crabtree-Hayes — who had to move her young family six times while completing her PhD — has seen the benefits of co-operatives. But it hasn’t been clear which benefits were due to the co-operative model, and which were due to other factors such as housing quality or location, or basic social housing support.

When approached by the affordable rental housing cooperative sector to find an answer, she worked with Western Sydney University colleagues, including Associate Professor Emma Power, a geographer from the School of Social Sciences, and Professor Neil Perry, chief economist at the Centre for Western Sydney and School of Business, along with colleagues from Griffith University and Swinburne University of Technology.

The team collaborated with five state-based community housing providers that develop, manage, and represent Australia’s affordable rental housing co-operatives, which occupy rent-controlled properties built by government-funded bodies. The team also worked directly with rental housing co-operative tenant-members and an international panel of housing co-operative researchers. They developed seven high-quality research tools, including a co-operative time use survey, a tenant-member survey, and an in-depth tenant-member interview, that enabled them to produce a detailed picture of the cost and consequences of Australia’s rental housing co-operatives.

A SENSE OF SECURITY

One of the most striking findings was the co-operative tenant-members’ overall sense of security in their homes. Making regular moves impacts the mental, physical, and financial wellbeing of individuals and families. This is exacerbated for those already at risk from other factors. One woman quoted in the report spoke about fleeing domestic violence only to spend four winter months in a tent at the town showgrounds because local emergency services were full.

The team found that the benefits of living in housing co-operatives as opposed to renting were extraordinarily positive. They went much further than simply the benefits of stable, affordable housing, and ranged from relief from crisis to significant associated effects on employment, identity, and family wellbeing.

Tenant-members in co-operatives were found to be more satisfied with their lives and had an enhanced sense of belonging. They reported stronger social ties and a sense of community, and their experience in contributing to the management of their co-operative had given them a ‘voice’ and sense of purpose in their lives they didn’t previously enjoy.

Living and participating in their co-operative encouraged some to pursue higher education, supported skill development, and sometimes led to better jobs. A respondent to the survey reported finally being able to budget because she knew what her costs would be. She used her budget to support her daughter’s ambition to train as a dancer, and at the time of the survey, her daughter had just signed her first professional dance contract.

The woman who had to camp at her local showground said that being part of a housing co-operative had given her confidence and security. “Now that I am secure,” she wrote, “I can give back to not only my co-operative but the community in general.”

In fact, Crabtree-Hayes and her colleagues found that the higher the commitment to the activities and principles of being in a co-operative — a quality they dubbed “co-operativism” — the greater the benefits were to tenant-members. Tenant-members were especially satisfied in co-operatives where incoming tenant-members were given training in how the co-operative worked, and where they might be able to contribute and learn.

The fit between housing layout and the co-operative’s identity was also a factor in the model’s overall success. Some co-operatives occupied a single building, for example, where others were more spread out. The researchers found that, in the first case, the tenant-members typically loved their co-located dwellings, while in the second, the tenant-members felt that their dispersed way of living was better. What mattered, said Crabtree-Hayes, was the match between the co-operative’s identity and the way they used their space.

BUILDING THE FUTURE
The affordable rental housing co-operatives in the study form only a small part of social housing in Australia, which is itself a small and marginalised part of the housing market, yet the findings of Crabtree-Hayes and her colleagues may contain lessons for the nation.

The team says the evidence base in their report lays the groundwork for robust engagement with policy makers, a renewed public discussion about co-operative benefits, and expansion of both rental and ownership co-operatives. Likewise, the project’s research tools can be used to further build the evidence base and create meaningful national and international comparisons.

Crabtree-Hayes attributes the success of the project to its collaborative and co-operative nature: “It was only possible, and only as effective as it was, because of the comprehensive and complimentary expertise of the team, including the research partners and the co-operative tenant-members.”