Social Networks in Public and Community Housing: The Impact on Employment Outcomes

Abstract

This article seeks to examine some of the ways in which social networks may contribute to employment outcomes for community and public housing tenants. There is a body of literature that explores the relationship between social networks and employment outcomes, and a separate literature on the relationship between housing and social networks (which is largely concerned with homeowners). However, there has been little research that links all three aspects, especially in relation to social housing. This provides a starting point for this research, which involved interviews with housing organisation staff and focus groups with tenants in two case study areas in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. This article reports on the findings through examining the way in which housing tenure may affect social network formation, and considering the ways that these networks can impact on job attainment. It is concluded that, overall, those in community housing appeared to fare better, in terms of employment-conducive networks, than those in public housing. This finding is related not just to the management of the housing, but also to the broader issues of stigma, area-level deprivation and intergenerational unemployment.

Keywords:

• Community housing
• public housing
• social networks
• employment

Acknowledgements

The South Australian Department of Human Services (now Department for Families and Communities) through the AHURI Southern Research Centre provided the funding that enabled this research to be undertaken. However, this article in no way reflects the views or influences of these organisations. The authors would like to thank Cecilia Moretti and the research participants. They would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments during the preparation of this article.

Notes

1. Community Service Organisation and Local Government community housing are other forms of community housing provision. Community Service Organisations provide housing as part of their range of social services and some Local Governments provide community housing for their local communities (Community Housing Federation of Australia [CFHA], 2001, p. 2).

2. There is a body of research that considers the broader concept of ‘social capital’, generally drawing on Putnam's conceptualisation, and its relationship to both housing and employment. However, the focus of this article is on research that explicitly considers social networks.

3. Social mix is commonly used to refer to both the socio-economic background of tenants and the mix of different housing tenure groups (e.g. public housing and homeowners) in an area, which is the way it is generally used here. It is also used to describe the different mix of particular populations in relation to other factors including age and ethnicity.