Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 44
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RENTAL INSIGHTS:
HOUSING POLICY
HOUSING POLICY
Dallas Rogers
The University of Sydney
Keith Jacobs
University of Tasmania
Key findings
We outline three key
challenges for fast
COVID-19 housing
policy making.
1: Dealing with
the past
The first challenge relates to how
we might connect housing research
findings in the present COVID-19
moment to the long trajectory of
housing research. At what point will
we know whether rental conditions
during the pandemic represent a
significant rupture with the past,
or simply a continuation of
longstanding housing problems?
Doing fast housing
policy
XXX in a pandemic
XXX
2: Data in the present
The second challenge is related to
the first; how and in what form should
housing scholars provide housing
policy (and other) advice from ‘inside’
a pandemic with an unknown end
point? One lesson from the global
financial crisis (GFC) is that it was hard
to make sense of the GFC from ‘inside’
the GFC; and it was only later, with
some temporal distance and analytical
perspective, that the policy lessons
became clearer.
3: Policy making
for the future
The third challenge relates to slow
housing policy making. What are
the challenges of doing fast housing
research within a context of slow policy
making and the longue duree of housing
policy change?
There is a need to exercise caution in
how these data are interpreted.
Why is it important?
Dealing with the past
It is entirely appropriate that
researchers consider the impact of
the pandemic and offer some possible
implications over the medium to long
term. Nonetheless, it is important
that those who produce or draw upon
contemporary evidence exercise
caution when making prediction
and policy.
Policy makers, the media and the
public more generally are calling for
particular types of housing information
and data related to COVID-19; statistics
about various aspects of the housing
system, rapid-fire policy solutions
that governments might implement,
or surveys of peoples’ housing
experiences.
Housing academics are not immune
to overstating claims about the
significance of legislation, or new
funding streams, or the long-term
impacts of rapid housing change.
The only certainty about the future, it
seems, is that it is hard to predict. With
this in mind, how should we proceed?
… it is important that those who produce or
draw upon contemporary evidence exercise
caution when making prediction and policy
