The voices of mid-life women facing housing insecurity

Single, older women in the State of Victoria, Australia have emerged as a group experiencing housing insecurity and being highly vulnerable to homelessness in their old age. One of the most surprising aspects of this trend is the propensity for these women to be tertiary educated. Focus groups reveal education as a significant means by which these women improved their economic positions, although most had entered female dominated, hence poorer paying industries. However, in most cases their gains came too late in their lives and/or have been undermined by labour market flexibility that has resulted in precarious employment with retrenchments, casualisation, and reductions in hours of work a common experience.&nbsp

No home at the end of the road

Single, older women in Australia have emerged as a group vulnerable to housing insecurity and as being in danger of homelessness in their old age. Wage inequality and interrupted working lives due to childcare responsibilities are contributing factors and have meant that women, especially single women, have a decreased capacity to acquire housing equity or retirement savings in their own right. In addition, social changes that permit women to choose whether or not they marry and which also enable serial monogamy means there has been significant growth in the number and proportion of single, older women in the population. These social changes mirror the lives of the post-Second World War baby boomers and the cumulative impacts are now being felt as this generation approaches retirement. These women now face further disadvantage in the housing market as purchase prices and rental costs have risen, reflecting a number of factors including a shortage of housing supply. The survey sought information about this group and their plans for retirement, and in particular their interest in purchasing a \u27equity land trust\u27 (ELT) apartment. As a model of affordable housing the ELT model excludes the cost of land and the scheme maintains properties as being perpetually affordable. Findings revealed that a third were in housing stress and could not contemplate purchasing even if subsidised. A minority had already purchased but were not confident that they would be able to hold onto their homes. The rest had sufficient incomes to purchase an ELT apartment but few had savings and many had debt. This tended to reflect pessimism about ever purchasing and resulted in living for the moment. However the majority were very interested the potential to purchase affordable housing, and indicated this would change their savings habits

Going it alone: single, low needs women and hidden homelessness

In early 2006 WISHIN (Women’s Information Support and Housing in the North) was approached by North East Housing Service (NEHS) who were concerned about the number of single women over 35, without dependents who were ringing their service for assistance and whom they were unable to assist. When discussed it was felt that such women would be unlikely to be assisted through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) because, as low needs women, they did not represent target groups. WISHIN agreed to work on the issue. Before WISHIN could propose solutions however, we needed to understand both how prevalent the problem might be and more about the women who were being ‘turned away’. A Steering Group of consumers reflecting the cohort and the agencies involved was formed to drive the work and a project worker, Dr Andrea Sharam was assigned the task of managing the research task. With the assistance of the Helen MacPherson Smith Trust, the Reichstein Foundation and the E.M. Horton Family the project set out to ‘test demand’, and find out more about these women. This report provides the result of this research. The assumption that underpinned the work was that service rationing and tight eligibility requirements meant that certain women were unlikely to receive assistance. If their issue was housing affordability rather than personal characteristics/needs then they were likely to miss out on services. Being poor is insufficient reason to be granted housing support. As service providers WISHIN and NEHS worried that such currently ‘unmet demand’ could manifest itself later as clients in their target groups – that is, those who are high needs such as those with drug, alcohol or mental health issues, or who have experienced domestic violence. WISHIN and NEHS wondered about the bias against poverty (as opposed to personal characteristics) that pervades thinking on eligibility when women’s earning capacity is significantly less than men’s. The Steering Group wondered what these women did when they couldn’t get assistance. Anecdotal cases suggested gender mattered. This led the Steering Group to consider if women have different adaptation strategies to men when it came to housing security and homelessness, and whether this meant women did not identify as homeless, and are not identified as homeless by most researchers, funding bodies and services, when they should be

Making apartments affordable: moving from speculative to deliberative development

Urban consolidation policies in Australia presuppose apartments as the new dominant housing type, but much of what the market has delivered is criticised as over-development, and as being generic, poorly-designed, environmentally unsustainable and unaffordable. In contrast to the usual focus on planning regulation and construction costs as the primary issues needing to be addressed in order to increase the supply of quality, affordable apartment housing this paper uses Ball’s (1983) ‘structure of provision’ approach to outline the key processes informing apartment development to reveal a substantial gap in critical understanding of how apartments are developed in Australia, and identifies economic problems not previously considered by policymakers. Using mainstream economic analysis to review the market itself, the authors found high search costs, demand risk, problems with exchange, and lack of competition present key barriers to achieving greater affordability and limit the extent to which ‘speculative’ developers can respond to the preferences of would be owner-occupiers of apartments. The existing development model, which is reliant on capturing uplift in site value, suits investors seeking rental yields in the first instance and capital gains in the second instance, and actively encourages housing price inflation. This is exacerbated by lack of density restrictions, such as have existed in inner Melbourne for many years, which permits greater yields on redevelopment sites. The price of land in the vicinity of such redevelopment sites is pushed up as landholders\u27 expectation of future yield is raised. All too frequently existing redevelopment sites go back onto the market as vendors seek to capture the uplift in site value and exit the project in a risk free manner. The paper proposes three major reforms. Firstly, that the market for apartment development be re-designed following insights from the economic field of ‘Market Design’ (a branch of Game Theory). A two-sided matching market for new apartments is proposed, where demand-side risks can be mitigated via consumer aggregation. Secondly, consumers should be empowered through support for  ‘deliberative’, or ‘do-it-yourself’ (DYI) development models, in order to increase competition, expand access, and promote responsiveness to consumer needs and preferences. Finally, planning schemes need to impose density restrictions (in the form of height limits, floor space ratios or bedroom quotas) in localities where housing demand is high, in order to dampen speculation and de-risk development by creating certainty. However restrictions on over-development on larger infill sites needs to be offset by permitting intensification of ‘greyfield’ suburbs. Aggregating existing housing lots to enable precinct regeneration and moderate height and density increases would permit better use of airspace thus allowing design outcomes that can optimise land use while retaining amenity

Utilities and residential tenancies - part 2: future directions for rental housing standards

This report considers a range of data and regulatory and policy interventions from international and domestic jurisdictions with the objective of improving the provision of utilities for private rental housing in Victoria. Overview There are a range of issues affecting the provision of utilities to tenants, particularly: low income households are more likely to occupy rental dwellings with a combination of low thermal effi ciency and ineffi cient appliances tenants are unlikely to be able to upgrade appliances or relocate to dwelling of higher thermal quality due to other market pressures energy consumption and costs are higher for many tenants relative to equivalant households in other tenures market processes and programs often preclude participation from residential tenants or have onerous access barriers Future Directions for Rental Housing Standards provides: a discussion of options for energy effi ciency improvements in the conclusion of Part one a discussion of current regulatory processes concerning the energy and water effi ciency of private rental housing options for improving the provision of energy and water services including both regulatory and non-regulatory options a focus on the policy processes arising from Council of Australian Government (COAG) reform

Inhomogeneous Quantum Walks

We study a natural construction of a general class of inhomogeneous quantum walks (namely walks whose transition probabilities depend on position). Within the class we analyze walks that are periodic in position and show that, depending on the period, such walks can be bounded or unbounded in time; in the latter case we analyze the asymptotic speed. We compare the construction to others in the existing literature. As an example we give a quantum version of a non-irreducible classical walk: the Polya Urn.Comment: 11 page

Testing the Structure of Multipartite Entanglement with Bell Inequalities

We show that the rich structure of multipartite entanglement can be tested following a device-independent approach. Specifically we present Bell inequalities for distinguishing between different types of multipartite entanglement, without placing any assumptions on the measurement devices used in the protocol, in contrast with usual entanglement witnesses. We first address the case of three qubits and present Bell inequalities that can be violated by W states but not by GHZ states, and vice versa. Next, we devise 'sub-correlation Bell inequalities' for any number of parties, which can provably not be violated by a broad class of multipartite entangled states (generalizations of GHZ states), but for which violations can be obtained for W states. Our results give insight into the nonlocality of W states. The simplicity and robustness of our tests make them appealing for experiments.Comment: 7 page

Web didáctica para la aproximación de funciones mediante redes neuronales

In this article we presents a project [1] developed to demonstrate the capability that Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLP) have to approximate non-linear functions [2]. The simulation has been implemented in Java to be used in all the computers by Internet [3], with a simple operation and pleasant interface. The power of the simulations is in the possibility of the user of seeing the evolutions of the approaches, the contribution of each neuron, the control of the different parameters, etc. In addition, to guide the user during the simulation, an online help has been implemented

The Narrative of Democracy in Classical Arabic Literature: According to Ibn al-Daya in al-Mokafat

This study explores the complexity and narrative of democracy in classical Arabic literature through the lens of Ibn al-Daya's "al-Mokafat." The research addresses how Ibn al-Daya integrates democratic principles into his storytelling by highlighting the political and social dynamics of the Tulunid era in Egypt. By adhering to realism, Ibn al-Daya presents the issues faced by ordinary people and various social classes, offering a polyphonic narrative that reflects diverse voices, cultures, and ideas. The analysis reveals that "al-Mokafat" embodies key democratic characteristics, such as polyphony, pluralism, inclusivity, and the reconciliation of diverse thoughts and cultures. The narrative approach adopted by Ibn al-Daya liberates the story from dogmatism and unilateralism, fostering a pluralistic interpretation and integration of cultural perspectives. This study underscores the significance of examining democratic narratives in classical Arabic literature and their impact on cultural and intellectual integration. The findings contribute to the understanding of how classical Arabic literature can serve as a medium for expressing democratic values and addressing social issues. By providing a democratic perspective within a historical context, Ibn al-Daya's work offers valuable insights into the application of democratic principles in literature, promoting a deeper appreciation for the complexity and diversity of classical Arabic storytelling

Kultura sigurnosti radne snage, stres na poslu i zadovoljstvo poslom u automobilskoj industriji

Safety culture as an organizational factor has an essential role in preventing occupational injuries and diseases. In this descriptive-analytical study, the relationship between organizational safety culture, job stress and satisfaction has been investigated to have a better understanding of the effect of this organizational factor on employee job stress and satisfaction. Three valid tools, including the Safety culture questionnaire, standard job stress questionnaire (JSQ), and Standard Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, were used. The study population consisted of 210 workers working in 13 production halls of an automotive industry who were selected by a simple random sampling method. After data collecting, SPSS software version 22 was used for data analysis, and AMOS software version 24 was used for confirmatory factor analysis. The results show a significant relationship between trained and untrained groups and safety culture (p = 0.002), job stress and education level (p = 0.006), and job satisfaction and education level (p = 0.011). Safety culture score was significantly different in trained and untrained groups (p = 0.002). Factor analysis showed that a workplace with higher safety culture could lead to less job stress and more job satisfaction in employees. Based on the results, safety culture affects job satisfaction and job stress. Also, we found safety and health education is one of the factors affecting safety culture, job satisfaction, and stress. Safety culture could result in less job stress and more job satisfaction in employees. Improving it will improve the safety and health situation and ultimately increase job satisfaction and reduce job stress.Kultura sigurnosti kao organizacijski čimbenik ima ključnu ulogu u prevenciji profesionalnih ozljeda i bolesti. Ovom deskriptivno-analitičkom studijom istražena je veza između organizacijske kulture sigurnosti s jedne strane te stresa i zadovoljstva na radnom mjestu s druge strane radi boljeg razumijevanja utjecaja koji ovaj organizacijski čimbenik ima na stres i zadovoljstvo koje zaposlenici osjećaju na radnom mjestu. Pri provedbi studije korištena su tri prokušana alata: upitnik o kulturi sigurnosti, standardni upitnik o stresu na radnom mjestu (JSQ) te standardni Minnesota upitnik o zadovoljstvu radnim mjestom. Uzorak populacije obuhvaćene studijom sastojao se od 210 nasumce odabranih radnika koji rade u 13 tvorničkih hala u tvrtkama iz područja autoindustrije. Sirovi podaci prikupljeni pri provedbi studije statistički su analizirani s pomoću računalnog programa SPSS v22, dok je potvrdna faktorska analiza provedena s pomoću računalnog programa AMOS v24. Rezultati pokazuju postojanje statistički značajne veze između treniranih i netreniranih grupa i kulture sigurnosti (p = 0.002), stresa na radnom mjestu i stupnja obrazovanja (p = 0.006) te zadovoljstva na radnom mjestu i stupnja obrazovanja (p = 0.011). Ocjena kulture sigurnosti značajno se razlikuje za trenirane i netrenirane grupe (p = 0.002). Faktorska analiza pokazuje da radna okolina s većom razinom kulture sigurnosti potencijalno vodi k nižoj razini stresa te višoj razini zadovoljstva na radnom mjestu. Rezultati pokazuju da kultura sigurnosti utječe na stres i zadovoljstvo na radnom mjestu. Također je utvrđeno da je edukacija u području sigurnosti i zdravlja jedan od čimbenika koji utječu na kulturu sigurnosti, a posljedično i na stres i zadovoljstvo na radnom mjestu. Kultura sigurnosti može rezultirati nižom razinom stresa i višom razinom zadovoljstva koje zaposlenici osjećaju na svojem radnom mjestu. Poboljšanje kulture sigurnosti poboljšat će sigurnosnu i zdravstvenu situaciju u radnim okolinama te u konačnici pojačati osjećaj zadovoljstva i smanjiti razinu stresa na radnom mjestu