This short article is part of our '20 high impact research stories' series. This has been assembled to mark two decades of the City Futures Research Centre 2005-2025. Each of the 20 stories revisits an influential research study completed over those 20 years, linking it with related Centre projects and outcomes. A brochure version of all 20 stories will be published later in 2025.

With rising homelessness rates, research from the City Futures Research Centre is helping policymakers reimagine housing systems to better support vulnerable and marginalised populations. A landmark study led by Dr Chris Martin, Exiting prison with complex support needs: The role of housing assistance (2021), funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), has brought national attention to the critical intersection of housing and justice systems. The project underscores the pivotal role of secure housing in reducing reoffending and improving outcomes for people leaving prison. 

Each year, tens of thousands of people are released from prison in Australia, 65,000 in 2019 alone, with one in seven seeking help from specialist homelessness services. Many return to unstable or unsafe housing situations, often complicated by a history of trauma, institutionalisation, and mental ill-health. One-third of prison entrants were homeless prior to detention, and 40 per cent had a diagnosed mental health condition. Yet, the housing options available to them post-release remain limited and fragmented. 

The study presents compelling evidence: when ex-prisoners are allocated public housing, police incidents fall by nearly 9% per year, court appearances by 7.6%, and justice system costs by close to $5,000 per person in the first year, with ongoing annual savings thereafter. These figures highlight the value of a stable housing pathway for both individual reintegration, and broader public cost savings and safety. 

This research has already informed policy and practice, with briefings to the Victorian Government and New South Wales non-government organisations, and an invited presentation at the National Homelessness Conference. It directly supports efforts to better coordinate housing and justice support systems, framing housing as a foundational public service. 

In parallel with the ‘Exiting Prison’ research, Dr Martin and colleagues researched the impact of providing public housing to persons convicted of sex offences – a group that faces extra difficulties in finding post-release accommodation. In an article published in Housing Studies, the team showed that those housing in public housing had better criminal justice outcomes, mostly at less cost to government, than releases assisted with private rental only. This evidence should help disarm the controversy that often affects assisting this group of ex-prisoners.

Complementing this work is a related AHURI-funded study also led by Dr Martin: Social housing legal responses to crime and anti-social behaviour: Impacts on vulnerable families (2019). This project examined how punitive tenancy termination processes, such as ‘three strikes’ policies, can disproportionately affect women, children, Indigenous households, and people with drug or alcohol dependencies. These policies can undermine housing stability and penalise households for the misconduct of others, often visitors. The research recommends separating tenancy support from threats of eviction and embedding safeguards to prevent homelessness caused by legal enforcement. 

Together, these projects have significantly advanced national conversations about housing governance in high-density contexts. They also inform the broader AHURI Inquiry into socially supported housing pathways (2025), which calls for a fundamental shift in how Australia delivers housing assistance. This includes recognising housing as a social entitlement, enhancing legal rights to housing support, and designing policies through co-production with those affected. Martin’s work offers a cohesive and evidence-based policy direction, reframing housing assistance as a system of care and coordination.