Associate Professor Louise Crabtree-Hayes

Louise Crabtree-Hayes is an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her research has focused on integrated approaches to sustainability and resilience for more than 20 years. Her work is characterised by interdisciplinary approaches to how we can live in cities as ecosystems, enabling human and non-human life to thrive. Louise previously led the development of Maldhan Ngurr Ngurra – the Lithgow Transformation Hub, focused on enabling thriving regional futures in a town impacted by carbon-heavy industries. She now co-ordinates the housing and evaluation streams of Regenerating Lithgow – People, Place, and Planet, which is a large-scale Bushfire Recovery and Resilience grant secured by the Hub.

Louise’s housing research focuses on diverse models of community-led, environmentally sensitive, and permanently affordable housing. She is the leading Australian researcher on community land trusts, and has expertise in community housing, cohousing, co-operatives, and shared equity housing, via research projects, advisory roles, and board/committee positions. Louise is currently leading a major national study on articulating value in affordable rental housing co-operatives co-funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance, and in partnership with members of the Alliance and housing co-operative member-tenants.