Sole voices: experiences of non-home-owning sole mother renters

Housing is both a key indicator of and contributor to, social advantage/disadvantage. Opportunities for wealth creation, affordability, sense of security and belonging to community and place, level of choice, self-esteem and self-determination are all linked to housing and, more specifically, to tenure type with its resulting (and often hidden) inequity. Issues relating to affordability and availability of housing have come to the forefront in recent times, with Australian property prices rising beyond the means of many low-income households leaving some group: excluded from achieving the sought after goal of home ownership. In this paper, I explore the impact of non-home ownership on a particularly significant and disadvantaged social group, sole mother families who do not own their homes and who subsequently rent their housing. A key concern addressed in this paper is the notion of home itself and how achieving a sense of home can be problematic when renting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Journal of Family Studies is the property of eContent Management Pty. Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.