Any approach to addressing a problem is based on a set of principles or values. These may be commonly held and sometimes may appear to be obvious, but sometimes they are less than explicit and may even be subject to dispute. For example, clear principles of efficiency or cost effectiveness may underlie any council policy but other principles may be poorly articulated or controversial, such as those relating to social justice and fairness, or the distribution of resources among beneficiaries.
Making these principles explicit and stating them upfront gives participants in a policy-making process a common point of departure in identifying issues and placing them on the policy agenda. It forms the basis on which different approaches to resolving a problem may be evaluated. Guiding principles will also provide the basis for assessing housing strategy outcomes. If environmental sustainability is a guiding principle, then the outcomes of the strategy must be assessed against criteria which reflect that commitment.
Some common principles that could be considered as points of departure for developing a housing strategy, are:
- Commitment to providing access to housing that is appropriate and affordable—all residents of an area should be able to access appropriate and affordable housing
- Openness and transparency—all interest groups should be engaged in open debate about how housing problems are to be defined, what issues are to be addressed and prioritised, what solutions are to be considered, what recommendations are to be made and what solutions are to be implemented
- Fairness and equity—any costs and benefits of policy outcomes are to be fairly distributed among all residents or all interest groups, with an emphasis on ensuring that the least well-off receive appropriate priority
- Efficiency and effectiveness—public resources are applied in such a way as to maximise beneficial outputs and outcomes per dollar expenditure
- Simplicity and ease of administration—policy recommendations should be simple to implement and administer and the costs of administration held in check
- Sustainability—social, economic or environmental.
It may be necessary to prioritise among different principles, and to give one principle precedence over another. For example, simplicity of administration may be compromised to ensure that outcomes benefit the least well-off. These principles would be applied so that a program of housing support may have strict eligibility criteria to ensure that only carefully defined low-income households benefit. Appropriate compromises between conflicting principles may require public debate if the resulting outcomes are to be broadly supported.
At the local government level, the draft affordable housing strategy being developed for Port Macquarie–Hastings Council, for example, is based on three guiding principles: environmental, economic and social sustainability; community benefit (to ensure that all may participate fully in the physical, economic, and social life of the area); and partnerships as a means of addressing housing needs. (See Port Macquarie-Hastings Affordable Housing Strategy, Draft Report, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, May 2006).
The Housing Strategy for the Gold Coast (Housing For All Of Us) is underpinned by several principles, including the right to affordable, appropriate and secure housing; house and neighbourhood design that supports development of inclusive and sustainable communities; housing diversity that provides choice; housing design that ensures access to inclusive lifestyle options, neighbourhood design that minimise resources use and protect our natural environment; assigns joint responsibility among citizens, the community housing sector, industry and all levels of government for housing outcomes; and recognising that actions in the strategy should strengthen the capacity of citizens to improve their own housing outcomes.
Similarly, at the state level, the Western Australian Department of Housing and Works produced a draft Housing Strategy WA which is based on the principles of affordability, sustainability and equity.
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