The influence of policy in accessing secure, appropriate and affordable housing for young people with disability

Background: Access to secure, appropriate, and affordable housing is a key determinant of health, wellbeing, and social inclusion. For young people with disability, structural and systemic barriers, including limited housing options, affordability constraints, and fragmented policy settings, continue to shape housing pathways and outcomes. Despite strong policy commitments, inequities persist, and the ways in which policy influences housing access and lived experiences remain insufficiently understood.

Objective: This presentation presents findings from a scoping review that mapped and synthesised international evidence on how policy influences access to housing for young people with disability. The review examined how housing access is conceptualised, how lived experiences are represented, and where gaps exist between policy intent and practice.

Methods: The review followed the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework, with reporting guided by PRISMA-ScR. Six academic databases and a range of grey literature sources were systematically searched for studies published between May 2001 and July 2026. Eligible studies focused on young people aged 15-30 years with disability and addressed housing access, pathways, or experiences. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics to summarise study characteristics and thematic analysis to identify key patterns across the evidence base.

Results: The findings highlight how disability and housing are conceptualised across the literature, alongside a strong emphasis on affordability, accessibility, and housing stability. However, lived experiences were inconsistently represented, with limited integration of first-person perspectives. The review also identified a persistent disconnect between policy intent and lived experience, reflecting gaps in implementation and coordination across housing, disability, and planning systems. Notably, there remains limited research explicitly examining how policy settings translate into housing outcomes for young people with disability.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the need for more integrated and person-centred policy approaches to housing. By strengthening the alignment between policy design and lived experience, there is an opportunity to advance health equity and support more inclusive housing systems. This research contributes to growing evidence on housing as a critical determinant of public health and offers insights to inform more equitable and responsive policy and planning interventions.

Tasma Eddy is a PhD Candidate at the Social Equity Research Centre at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on how young people with disability access secure, appropriate, and affordable housing. She is also a practising town planner at a development consultancy, bringing industry insight into her research. In 2026, she was awarded the Victorian Planning & Environmental Law Association Young Professional Award, supporting research on Singapore’s public housing system. Through interviews with housing professionals and residents, and observational analysis, her work undertakes a comparative examination to inform more inclusive and equitable housing policy in the Australian context.