Transforming Housing is a research project that has been working since 2013, building a partnership to transform Melbourne’s affordable housing industry. The overarching aim of this project is collaboration: fostering partnerships between key stakeholders interested in improving and expanding the provision of affordable housing. The project is supported by Carlton Connect, the University of Melbourne’s strategy body to improve environmental and social sustainability outcomes, as well as multiple industry partners from private, non-profit and government sectors. The basis for discussion at the summit was an options paper prepared by the Transforming Housing project team, drawing on their research conducted in Melbourne, Portland (US), and Vancouver and Toronto (Canada).

The professional facilitator of the Affordable Housing Summit, Kimbra White, worked with the Transforming Housing research team to develop an action-oriented agenda. Only two hours of the day and a half long hour Summit was given over to speeches from researchers and political leaders. The focus was on discussion leading to concrete recommendations for action. There were three sessions for group deliberation during the summit, focusing respectively on policy and regulation, investment and finance, and partnerships and future actions. During each session, attendees had an opportunity to participate in a group discussion of their choice, based on the ten ideas outlined in the options paper. Discussions were facilitated by researchers at the University of Melbourne and were aimed at identifying whether options were workable and what actions would need to occur to achieve these.