Mitchell Park
Urban renewal projects represent significant investments for a range of government agencies, local councils and community organisations. Funding agencies must therefore have confidence that their limited funds are being used in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
Public housing in Mitchell Park was once affected by asset management problems such as declining values, increasing maintenance costs, and high vacancy rates. The area has also been subject to social challenges relating to crime, security issues, and tenancy management, including low demand for housing, high turnover of tenants, and vandalism.
In 1986 the urban renewal process in Mitchell Park commenced. The project evolved from a process of simply demolishing obsolete stock and replacing it with new housing to a project aimed at regenerating the area to provide a desirable choice of housing in a quality social and physical environment. The project was completed in 2005.
URPS, in association with Truscott Research and Peter Rossini (UniSA), undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the project on behalf of Housing SA and the City of Marion. The evaluation involved the establishment of indicators to determine the social, physical and financial changes in the area. Methods used to inform the indicators included a community perception survey and schools survey; a focus group discussion; analysis of ABS data; and analysis of other data, including policing, traffic, Valuer-General and property data. Surveying school students was also an important part of the evaluation methodology used by URPS as young people are often under-represented in community engagement.