'A pathway to where?' Inquiry into understanding and reimagining social housing pathways

Demand for social housing in Australia significantly exceeds supply. • The policy response to the demand has focused on 'pathways', with pathways being shaped by increased targeting to people with the highest needs. • As a result, there are inconsistencies between operational policies and the reality of people's lives as they traverse housing pathways; • Reimagining social housing pathways requires: • Solutions that move away from managing a waitlist by rationing supply; • Constructing realistic pathways that best enable positive tenant outcomes; • Rethinking social housing as infrastructure of care, within a spectrum of housing assistance and supports across tenures. • As a society, it is critical we can answer the most frequent question that emerged from this research project: 'A pathway to where?'.