This presentation examines research on housing programs in Australia and France that provide low-income housing within central, well-resourced urban areas. It argues that these models, conceived on the premise of reciprocity, offer a more just approach to residential desegregation than mainstream “social mix” policy approaches employed within both the Australian and French contexts. It explores how framing social relations between socioeconomically diverse residents through the lens of reciprocity offers a conceptual and practical alternative to “role model” thinking that underpins social mix, which assumes that the values and behaviours modelled by middle-class residents who move into areas that concentrate poverty through large scale demolition and reconstruction programs can “bring the neighbourhood up,” as well as its lower-income residents (Bacqué et al. 2014). Reciprocity alternatively frames encounters across difference as mutually enriching exchanges between interdependent equals. The presentation draws on research into programs run by four non-governmental housing organisations—in Australia, mixed-tenured community housing in Ashwood, Melbourne and homestay accommodation for people seeking asylum in Brisbane; and in France, student housing provided next to social housing estates in Paris’s 18th district and a mixed-tenured co-housing residence in Montreuil. It examines how these organisations conceive and operationalise reciprocity in their approaches to recruitment, partnerships, capacity building, accompaniment and housing design. It considers how these approaches shape social relations between residents, by exploring what and how residents are reciprocating in encounters across difference. Finally, it provides emerging examples of how these encounters contribute to reducing inequalities and prejudice and strengthening capabilities and solidarity. In doing so, it proposes a theoretical conceptualisation of reciprocity based on a social ontology of interdependence and interconnectedness. It also argues that these approaches offer insights into alternatives to social mix and demonstrate the value of elaborating new, more just models of residential desegregation.