Housing, social exclusion and the emergence of place focused policy in New South Wales.
Bill Randolph
University of Western Sydney (Urban Frontiers Programs)
Contact Email:   b.randolphuws.edu.au

This paper will present the summary findings of an ARC funded study that has explored the concept of social exclusion in the Australian context, the relationship between the housing markets and exclusion and spatial policy responses to this issue.

The interrelationship between social exclusion/inclusion and place has attracted limited interest in Australian academic literature and has not been subject to empirical testing in the form of locally based case study research. This paper addresses this gap and stresses the relationship between social disadvantage, location and the housing market, too often a forgotten component of welfare policy debates in this area. Given the different roles played by the public and private housing markets in housing the lowest income groups in Australia, the importance of tenure-specific (and hence place-specific) differences among socially and economically marginalised groups forms a central focus of the paper. The paper will also review the spatial policy responses to social disadvantage currently being implemented with specific reference to Western Sydney. The development of “place focused policy” in NSW will be critically assessed and the implications of the findings for new place based responses to social disadvantage will be discussed, drawing on best practice both in Australia and overseas.

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