A new collaboration between the University of Notre Dame Australia and Faith Housing Australia will bring Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions into a national conversation about housing and justice.
Australia’s housing crisis is usually discussed in terms of supply, affordability, planning and investment. But a new national research partnership is asking a more fundamental question: What is a home for and what responsibilities do we have to ensure others can have one?
Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics & Society and Faith Housing Australia have partnered to launch The Dwelling Project: Theology and Ethics of Housing in Australia, a multi-year research and engagement initiative exploring the moral and ethical dimensions of housing through the intellectual traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The project was officially launched on November 6 at The Theology and Ethics of Housing in Australia, a panel conversation led by broadcaster Geraldine Doogue with Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, Dr Samir Mahmoud and Professor Sandra Lynch.
Bringing together academic scholarship and the practical experience of faith communities, housing and homelessness organisations, the project will examine how the three major Abrahamic religious traditions understand home, land, property, justice and human flourishing.
The initiative responds to a significant gap in Australia’s housing conversation, where economic and policy considerations often overshadow deeper questions about the meaning of home, our responsibilities to one another and the kind of society we want to build.
The project also engages with major faith-based institutions in Australia’s housing system.
Faith-based organisations deliver more than 20 per cent of Australia’s community housing, alongside homelessness services and other forms of community support. Faith institutions also hold significant land and property assets, extensive volunteer networks and longstanding relationships with communities across the country.
Acting Pro Vice Chancellor Research at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Annette Pierdziwol, said the partnership demonstrated the university’s commitment to research that engages with the most pressing questions facing Australian society.
“Our partnership with Faith Housing Australia brings together the strengths of a research university and a distinctive national civic organisation, creating an opportunity for research that is intellectually significant and capable of making a real difference.”
Faith Housing Australia chair Rob Stokes said Australia’s housing challenge demanded a broader conversation about the purpose of housing and the responsibilities of society.
“Our great religious traditions have wrestled for centuries with questions about property, justice, stewardship and our responsibilities to others. Bringing these perspectives into the public square can help us think more deeply about the values that should underpin our housing system.”
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New national project to explore the moral questions at the heart of Australia’s housing crisis (UNDA)
