Brisbane can become a historic leader amongst Olympic host cities if it acts early to create a positive housing legacy for all, including the city's homeless population, according to QUT researcher Dr Lyndall Bryant.
Dr Bryant is a leading Australian expert in property economics and the housing crisis, and leads the QUT Centre for Justice Housing Security Research Group.
Her new paper, Homelessness and the Olympic Legacy: The good, the bad and the ugly, analyses the chequered history of prior Olympic host cities' responses to homeless people and other vulnerable communities.
Dr Bryant has examined 40 years of Olympic host city history – from Los Angeles 1984 to Paris 2024.
She said history showed that many host cities struggled with re-homing low-income and homeless residents due to Olympic developments, particularly if housing strategies had not been addressed early.
But she said Brisbane's long lead-up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games meant the city had a time advantage to plan for affordable housing opportunities for residents, before and after the Games.
"Brisbane is already off to a good start, and I hope the examples and findings in my review of past host cities help inform Queensland policymakers and Games organisers," Dr Bryant said.
"I'm pleased to see a housing legacy strategy on the Queensland Government's agenda, acknowledging action is required before, during and after the Brisbane Games to ensure positive housing outcomes for Queenslanders and particularly for our most vulnerable communities."
Dr Bryant said there were many ways the government could deliver a positive housing legacy, including:
- Provide additional social housing in the lead-up to 2032 to counter rent increases, particularly in inner-city areas
- Retain a public housing interest in the development of Olympic sites, either by pre-purchasing or long term head leasing social housing
- Require developers to have diversity in the types of housing created
- Guarantee extra social housing supply by making public housing part of the athlete village legacy
- Taking a trauma-informed approach to dealing with homelessness in the lead-up to the Games
- Reviewing short-term rental policies, given AirBnB is the global accommodation partner of the IOC
Dr Bryant analysed more than 200 academic papers on the impact of the Olympic Games on host city housing over a 40-year timeline.
She said Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and London (2012) provided some examples of host cities that made attempts towards positive housing legacies.
And she cited Atlanta (1996), Beijing (2008) and Rio de Janeiro (2016) among the worst for their treatment of homeless and low-income communities and forced displacements.
"These prior Olympic host cities provide a sorry example of ineffective housing policies with detrimental impacts on the cities' most disadvantaged people," she writes in her paper.
"Now is the time for Brisbane organisers to take heed from the lessons of the past and be proactive in ensuring positive housing legacies for all."
Dr Bryant said retaining a public interest in renewal projects was one of the keys to ensuring these positive legacies.
"We need to see planning now for urban renewal projects that provide additional public housing," she said.
"These may be public-private partnerships – and not market-led urban renewal initiatives, as these usually fail to accommodate low-income residents in the long term.
"This includes pre-emptive investment in combating homelessness through providing additional public housing that may circumvent the need for regressive and reactive policies closer to the Games."
The new housing and homelessness briefing paper series is available on the QUT Centre for Justice website, along with other briefing papers on topics including domestic and gender-based violence, disaster and environmental justice, and First Nations justice.
Background
The QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper Series on Housing and Homelessness includes the following papers, recognising the breadth of housing research expertise across the centre:
- Climate Change, Housing and Human Rights, by Professor Rowena Maguire, Francis Nona, Associate Professor Bridget Lewis and Dr Monica Taylor
- Funding with Purpose: Strategic Models for Not-for-Profit Organisations Responding to Domestic and Family Violence in South-East Queensland, by Dr Maria Kaya, Dr Bernd Irmer and Professor Rowena Maguire
- Beyond Shelter: Integrating Mental Health Support in Temporary Supported Accommodation, by Mitchell Parlett
- Let's not forget the support! The critical role of support services in contemporary housing and homelessness policy and practice, by Dr Shane Warren
- Achieving the National Housing Accord: Do we have a chance?, by Dr Lyndall Bryant and Dr Andrea Sharam
- Three ideas for transforming access to health and social support for people experiencing homelessness attending an emergency department, by Professor Jane Currie
- Gendered Strategies for Trauma-Informed Lighting Design Across the Architectural Continuum, by Sadia Subrina and Dr Francisca Rodriguez
- Accommodation challenges for preservice teachers in rural, regional, and remote placements: A simultaneous crisis, by Dr Sarah James
- Homelessness and the Olympic Legacy: The good, the bad and the ugly, by Dr Lyndall Bryant
Photo at top of page by Andrew Merry, via Getty Images.
