Tony Melhuish, Anthony King and Elizabeth Taylor argue that the Commonwealth rent assistance rules should be modified to recognise regional variations in the rental market and in the impact of the program. Changes to the rules may result in improved regional performance, without any major increases in the overall budget allocation to the program.

Tony Melhuish and Anthony King outline a project to map the level of demand for housing assistance in the short to medium term; the likely 'hot spots' of demand; which client groups are likely to drive demand; and potential changes in the composition of the client groups and the type of housing required.

In this report, Tony Melhuish and Anthony King provide baseline projections for local government areas of potential demand for housing assistance by household characteristics.

Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) provides supplementary income to about one million income support recipients in the private rental market in recognition of the additional costs of private rental housing. The primary aim of the research reported in this final report is to assess the targeting performance of CRA at a regional level. The premise is...

Commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) entitlement rules - rent thresholds and maximum levels of assistance - are standard across the country, despite the evident variations in regional rent levels. This situation has prompted calls for a regional dimension to be added to CRA payments. How might possible variants of CRA provide a greater responsiveness to regional...