Developing appropriate exit strategies for housing regeneration programmes

Abstract

This report presents the findings of a project undertaken by the AHURI Southern Research Centre to review current practices and develop appropriate exit strategy models for housing regeneration programmes. Exit strategies can provide a planning implementation framework for State Housing Authorities to sustain the benefits of housing regeneration expenditure once renewal programmes have formally ended. From the review undertaken for the Positioning Paper, it is evident that community empowerment is the most favoured strategy deployed by Australian State and Territory Housing Authorities to sustain the benefits of regeneration investment. Only in Queensland has the housing authority begun to develop explicit exit strategies including project management arrangements to manage housing estates for the period after the regeneration project has been completed. Australian State Housing Authorities’ policies can be contrasted with strategies developed by local housing authorities in the UK where exit strategies are an established tool in the management of housing regeneration projects. However, there is a paucity of research exploring deployment of exit strategies and the problems that can arise at the end of a regeneration project, largely because most renewal programmes are long term and few have been completed to date. The aim of the research was to look in close detail at specific policy innovations and gauge the perceptions of key housing and regeneration professionals, tenant activists and policy-makers. The specific research questions were: 1. What practices are being deployed by State Housing Authorities to secure sustainability on housing regeneration projects? 2. What are the external and structural factors that can impede the efficacy of housing renewal programmes? 3. What are the key issues that should be considered from the outset in relation to a limited time renewal/regeneration program? 4. How can residents be involved in the development of an exit strategy? 5. What agencies need to be involved in the formulation of an exit strategy? 6. What institutional capacity is required to implement exit strategies? 7. How should exit strategies be evaluated? 8. What are the implications for state housing authorities in not employing exit strategies for renewal programmes? Five housing regeneration initiatives (all at different stages of development and spread across three jurisdictions) were selected as case studies. The South Australian case studies (Salisbury North and the Parks) are well-established projects at a pre-exit strategy stage. The Tasmanian case study (Bridgewater) typifies a mature project where the regeneration programme has formally ended and a community-based agency (Bridgewater Urban Renewal Project) has been established to maintain the achievements of the programme. The New South Wales case studies are the Minto project, which has not completed the initial master planning stage and has no exit strategy, and Windale community renewal scheme (which involves community initiatives only, not physical renewal as in the other estates), where there is a clear exit strategy, namely to transfer the effective ownership of the regeneration process to the community. The findings of the research are structured around three thematic areas: exit strategies and objectives; the management of exit strategies; and evaluation issues.