Residents’ Voices in Affordable Housing Policy and Practices in the U.S. and Australia

(2008 - 2014)

The Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University Chicago partnered with the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre University of Western Sydney to launch Residents’ Voices, a project designed to develop new ways to research and understand affordable housing issues in Chicago, Sydney, and Adelaide. The project was partially funded by the Australian Research Council. 

Residents’ Voices used collaborative and participatory methods, as well as cross-national discussion between residents in these cities, to identify matters of concern to affordable and public housing residents. We brought resident experience and knowledge to the forefront of discussions about concentrated poverty and housing policy.

Bonnyrigg Housing Development, Sydney.

Residents’ Voices had three primary aims:

1. To support the development of new knowledge.

2. To develop and document innovative research methodologies.

3. To facilitate communication between residents internationally and disseminate findings to broad audiences through social media.

CURL Graduate Fellow and Sociology PhD candidate Kimberlee Guenther outlined directions of the research in her dissertation proposal hearing in June 2012. (Powerpoint)

Chicago Housing Authority Transformation new mixed income housing: Madden Wells.

Research Team:

• P. Nyden, CURL

• K. Guenther, CURL Graduate Fellow

• M. Darcy, UWS

• L. Kenworthy, UWS

• D. Rogers, UWS

Community Partner:

• University of Western Sydney