Housing Research for a Sustainable Tomorrow

Associate Professor Amity James leads the Property discipline area of Curtin’s School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. She is also the deputy director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute – Curtin Research Centre.  

Amity has a national reputation for excellence in housing research, particularly in the areas of housing affordability and homelessness, residential mobility, aging and housing and housing policy. She has extensive experience in qualitative research methods and draws on the lived experience to inform policy relevant outcomes. 

In 2020, Amity won Shelter WA’s Affordable Housing and Homelessness Research Award and received a Highly Commended award in the Industry Project of the Year category. 

Professor Josh Byrne is the Dean of Sustainable Futures at Curtin University.  Josh has extensive experience in the urban design and development sector. His research expertise spans water sensitive design, energy efficient housing and sustainable urban development.

Josh is well known as the WA presenter on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia program where over the past 20 years he has demonstrated how gardening can improve urban livability to a national audience. He is also a member of the Waste Authority of Western Australia and the state government’s Design Review Panel.

Ms Emma Colombera is Executive Director for the Office of Homelessness at the Western Australian Department of Communities. Emma and her team lead ‘All Paths Lead to a Home’, a ten-year whole-of-community strategy to improve outcomes for vulnerable Western Australians experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. Dedicated to developing evidence-based policies and initiatives, and community sector development, Emma is also committed to implementing Housing First approaches that provide sustainable solutions to address complex social issues.

Dr Gemma Crawford has more than 20 years’ experience in the practice, advocacy, leadership, policy, teaching and research of health promotion and public health.

Her research has included the topics of population mobility, housing and community participation, and she is currently a lead researcher on a migration, health and housing research project titled Journey to Home.

Professor Steven Rowley is a Professor of Property in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. He has been Director of the Australian Housing Urban Research Institute’s (AHURI) Curtin Research Centre since 2011 and is a member of the WA Housing Industry Forecasting Group.

Steven’s primary research focus is housing affordability and supply, an area in which he has contributed more than 90 research publications, including reports on behalf of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre.

Amma Shemery is the Chief Operating Officer of the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre, hosted by Curtin. Ammar has more than 20 years’ international senior management experience across the construction, assets, facilities, engineering and education sectors; and strong business transformation and stakeholder management experience across government, industry and with research stakeholders.

The centre’s activities include national industry-research collaborations in social and affordable housing, decarbonisation of the built environment, waste management and the circular economy, digital engineering and asset information management, urban planning and transport infrastructure and sustainable procurement.