Affordable Housing Funders Network (online, 6 June)

Speakers

Professor Chris Leishman - Property and Housing Economics, University of South Australia

Professor Chris Leishman is a housing economist, and one of Australia’s leading housing researchers. He is also a non-executive director of Housing Choices Australia – a not for profit community housing provider active in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Chris is best known for his work on modelling housing supply and housing need in Australia and the UK. He is an editor of the academic journal Urban Studies and a past Editor-in-Chief of the Housing Studies journal. He works extensively with government at national, state and local levels and is focused on research projects that make a difference to people either directly, or through influencing policy change.

Maiy Azize – Chair and National Spokesperson, Everybody's Home

Maiy Azize is the National Spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a campaign to fix Australia’s housing crisis. Everybody’s Home is made up of 500 organisations and over 43,000 Australians who have come together to campaign for fair and affordable housing.

Maiy is also the Deputy Director of Anglicare Australia, a network of welfare and caring organisations linked to the Anglican Church. She has authored many reports and studies, including Written Off: The High Cost of Australia's Unfair Tax System for Everybody’s Home and Asking Those Who Know: A Study of Australians on Centrelink Payments for Anglicare Australia. She has also contributed to research on housing and poverty for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, and serves as a Fellow at the Australian Basic Income Lab.

Funders network chair

Erin Dolan – Senior Program Manager - Homelessness and Affordable Housing, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation

Erin is an experienced grants program manager, with nearly twenty years’ working in the industry. Her role entails developing and managing granting programs using best practice philanthropy and a focus on systemic change. She is the Chair of Philanthropy Australia’s Affordable Housing Funders Network and writes on issues relating to homelessness and affordable housing:

• • • Using philanthropy to build affordable housing through alternative financing pathways
    • Housing Australians through COVID-19
    • 10 Ways Philanthropy is Housing Australians

The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation is an independent community foundation that has supported Melbourne’s charities and the critical issues facing Melbourne since 1923.

The Foundation has worked on addressing homelessness as a priority for over a decade and recognises that the supply of affordable housing is one of the primary causes of homelessness.