The role of informal community resources in supporting stable housing for young people recovering from mental illness: key issues for housing policy-makers and practitioners

This is the Final Report from a project that aimed to enhance understanding of the role of informal community resources in supporting stable housing and social inclusion for young people recovering from mental illness. The project had three discrete objectives reflecting this overall aim to:

• Identify the informal community resources, relationships and supports that facilitate the acquisition and retention of stable housing for youth in recovery.
• Identify the various ways youth recovering from a mental illness utilise these informal resources and relationships in support of stable housing.
• Identify ways that informal community resources might be mobilised in the design of novel housing and social inclusion initiatives for youth in recovery.

The project entailed an extensive review of the literature, followed by empirical research contrasting the sources, distribution and availability of informal community resources in three sites (Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart). We then assessed the role of informal resources in facilitating the acquisition and retention of stable housing for youth in recovery. The questions investigated over the course of the project were:

• How do local places, relationships and resources facilitate the acquisition and retention of stable housing for youth recovering from mental illness?
• How do youth recovering from a mental illness identify and deploy these informal resources and relationships in support of stable housing?
• How might these resources be mobilised in the design of novel housing and social inclusion initiatives for youth recovering from a mental illness?