Strategies of Australia's leading not-for-profit housing providers: A national study and international comparison

Governments in Australia and internationally have increasingly been turning to third sector (i.e. 'not-for-profit' non-government) organisations to deliver social services including health, education, and community services. This has included placing growing reliance on not-for-profit (NFP) providers to procure housing and deliver housing management services to those whose needs cannot be met by the market. As such a shift marks a fundamental change in the model of housing assistance delivery in Australia, it warrants research that seeks to understand its impacts from an organisational (as well as a public policy) perspective. This is the Final Report of a three-year project which investigated how larger housing NFP organisations in Australia have been developing and positioning themselves for future opportunities and challenges. Understanding development of such entities is of vital interest to governments advancing investment and regulatory strategies for the sector, to private lenders into the sector and to the sector itself.