About HOME

Who we are

HOME is an interdisciplinary group of around 30 Deakin researchers. Working with local communities, we co-design solutions to complex problems of access to affordable housing, homelessness and social inclusion.

Our team has expertise across design, architecture, health, homelessness, disability, accessibility and universal design, indigenous communities, human geography, place-making, anthropology, systems thinking, community engagement, the arts, policy, law, property and economics.

What we do

HOME works with communities to address the urgent need to deliver affordable, well designed, sustainable and connected housing for everyone. 

Poorly integrated and under-supplied affordable housing is having widespread negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of many Australians. The HOME Research Hub was set up specifically to help communities and government tackle this “wicked” problem.

Groups at risk of exclusion from our current housing system include low income earners, Indigenous Australians, women and children escaping family violence, people living with mental ill-health or disability, refugees and recent migrants, young people and an ageing population unable to age-in-place.

How we work

HOME partners with communities, not-for-profit organisations, business and government to solve complex problems around affordable housing, homelessness and social inclusion.

We use action research, informed by systems and design thinking, to develop strategies that are community-tailored, evidence-based and place-focused.​

Drawing on a wide pool of expertise, HOME offers a uniquely agile research approach. Multi-disciplinary teams with relevant expertise are matched to specific projects. We facilitate dialogue between stakeholder communities, and work with them to understand their needs and devise collaborative solutions.

In turn, our research findings will help inform better policy interventions and build stronger cities, suburbs and neighbourhoods.

Our vision: “A Home For All”

HOME’s work is based on four key themes:

  1. Home for life: designed to be adaptable and universally accessible; that meets our needs, and enables us to engage in personally meaningful activities; is safe and securely ours; and so a home for all stages of life;
  2. Home we can afford: designed to minimise energy use and built to minimise environmental impact; that matches our means, and is available to all; and so a home that is sustainable, both collectively and individually;
  3. Home where we know neighbours: designed for social connectivity; and so a home where we can strengthen relationships across difference;
  4. Home that is connected: to occupations, services, education, nature, transport, play, food and the wider world.

Governance

An eleven-member Steering Committee, including four core leaders, leads the strategic development, governance and monitoring of HOME’s research program.

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