Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Senior Manager for Homelessness & Affordable Housing Erin Dolan was recently awarded a 2024 Churchill Fellowship to investigate international housing funds.
Homelessness in Australia is on the rise. Australia has two of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world. The double pressure of housing and the cost of living is causing profound stress for individuals and families across Greater Melbourne.
One way to reduce the cost of developing housing is to reduce the cost of debt. Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation funds significant capital grants to increase affordable housing. Another way we could help is by providing low or no interest financing.
As part of a study tour, Erin will visit North America and Europe to see how housing funds provide low-cost debt to build affordable housing. “I’m particularly interested in financing for early stages of development, when loans are costly and hardest to get. Once the housing is built, the loan is repaid and then recycled to another housing provider, over and over again.
“I’m keen to visit cities where the housing market is similar to Melbourne and Sydney, for example, Vancouver and San Francisco, and also places where the housing market works well such as Vienna which is one of the world’s best examples,” said Erin.
Erin will also attend the International Social Housing Festival in Dublin 4 - 6 June 2025, a conference that will provide an opportunity to discuss innovation and best practice in social and affordable housing by delegates from all over the world.
Ultimately Erin hopes that in the future, the Foundation will be able to demonstrate a new way of developing affordable housing through a philanthropic housing fund.