The Elephant is the Room: new 'legal' thinking about housing as a health determinant

The Elephant is the Room: new 'legal' thinking about housing as a health determinant

Background: Health is affected by the environments where people live – and those environments determine health behaviours. Yet many Australians lack autonomy over their housing circumstances. Available data and scholarly research identify the affordability, condition, sustainability, and social environment of housing as critical to health. There is limited research to date on the influence of housing law on health behaviours. This oversight matters because Australia’s legal system, including its human rights framework, creates, frames, and regulates housing. This means the laws developed by governments and enacted by parliaments to overcome housing insecurity and homelessness are not systemic rules meeting the objective of an equal right to safe, secure and dignified housing for all. If legislation is to respect, protect and fulfil human rights obligations, new thinking is necessary.

Methods: Roundtable discussions with regional Third Sector public and private charitable organisations servicing people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness were conducted by a multi-disciplinary research team at three sites. The roundtable discussions adopted the normative methodology lawyers use when solving complex legal problems and a comparative systematic (scoping) review of literature is a component of the project.

Results: This research was key in identifying emerging regional housing and health concerns, highlighting the potential role of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) as a tool in bridging gaps between political rhetoric and tangible health outcomes.

Conclusions: The project’s findings substantiate existing concerns about the role of housing law in providing effective systemic responses for positive health behaviours in Australia’s regional communities.

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