Understanding and addressing community opposition to affordable housing development

Research aims The development of affordable housing in mixed-tenure neighbourhoods is frequently frustrated by opposition from local residents, planners, politicians and the media. This opposition can lead to costly construction delays and amendments for affordable housing developers and in some cases may even force the abandonment of projects. In the most high-profile cases, the opposition threatens to undermine political and public support for affordable housing provision. There has been much research on the phenomenon of community opposition to affordable housing development in the USA, but there is almost no equivalent research in Australia. This is a concern because current policy directions suggest that new affordable housing development in the coming years will increasingly be located in mixed-tenure neighbourhoods, most often on small sites bounded by multiple properties. The central aims of this study were to improve understanding of community opposition to affordable housing in Australian cities and to consider how that opposition can be mitigated or addressed. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. What is the policy and housing market context for community opposition to affordable housing? 2. What are the stated and unstated factors underlying community opposition to affordable housing projects? 3. How and why does community opposition to affordable housing development escalate? 4. What are the impacts of affordable housing development on host areas? 5. How can opposition to affordable housing development be mitigated or addressed through policy measures and practical steps?