Abstract
Indigenous peoples remain among the most disadvantaged Australians in terms of their housing needs. This chapter begins by discussing the historical and cultural factors and past policy approaches that helped to shape the specific housing needs of Indigenous Australians in both urban and remote geographic settings. The chapter continues by critically examining contemporary policy approaches to addressing Indigenous disadvantage and the barriers to achieving better housing outcomes. Policy responses are shown to have been complex and highly volatile, characterised by frequent changes in direction and shifting responsibilities across governments. Key challenges in the social housing, home ownership and private rental service systems are described. A central theme is consideration of how housing policies could be better aligned with cultural values and Indigenous aspirations.
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Notes
- 1.
Australia’s First Peoples are those who are descendent from, identify as and/or are accepted by their community as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both. They may also be referred to as Indigenous Australians. In using the term ‘Indigenous’ in this chapter we do not intend to detract from the distinctive identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- 2.
This is likely to be an underestimate of the total Indigenous population (ABS 2016a).
- 3.
Households with incomes of less than 50% of median equivalised disposable household income (see Chapter 3).
- 4.
Remoteness areas are broad geographical classifications of local areas with common characteristics in relation to accessibility, based on distance from population centres of various sizes. Five categories of remoteness are used: major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote. In referring to ‘remote’ areas in this chapter we incorporate ‘very remote’. Similarly, ‘urban and regional’ or ‘cities and towns’ refers to the first three categories above. For further details see ABS (2006).
- 5.
Indigenous households are those with at least one identified Indigenous member.
- 6.
This compares with 1.4% of non-Indigenous Australians who live in remote areas.
- 7.
Health Habitat is a 30-year collaboration of professional architects, doctors, tradespeople and community workers dedicated to healthy housing initiatives in remote Australia and internationally. A core philosophy is skilling local communities to manage and maintain their own housing.
- 8.
Households defined as needing one or more bedrooms to meet an occupancy standard are considered to be overcrowded (for more detail see AIHW2019a).
- 9.
Unacceptable standard housing is defined as having less than four working facilities (for washing people, washing clothes/bedding, storing/preparing food and sewerage) and having more than two major structural problems (e.g. electrical/plumbing problems, major cracks in walls/floors or major roof defects) (ABS 2016a).
- 10.
Empirical assessment of need covers measures of: homelessness, overcrowding, affordability, dwelling condition and connection to essential services (power, water and sewerage) (AIHW2005). Using different affordability and adequacy measures of need underscores the value of multidimensional measures of housing need (as discussed in Chapter 3).
- 11.
This followed the 1967 amendment to the Australian Constitution that gave the Federal Parliament the power to make laws relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- 12.
The COAG Reform Council was established by COAG in 2008 as a specialist agency independent of all governments to strengthen accountability for their performance across multiple program areas. Accountability for ‘Closing the Gap in Indigenous Disadvantage’ was a nominated priority (COAG Reform Council 2010). Following a change of national government, it was abolished in 2014 and its functions adsorbed into various Commonwealth agencies.
- 13.
The CDEP was gradually dismantled and finally abolished in 2015.
- 14.
By 2016, it was estimated that less than 200 funded ICHOs were still active across Australia (Milligan et al. 2016).
- 15.
Other ‘building blocks’ to overcoming disadvantage were early childhood, schooling, health, economic participation, safe communities, and governance and leadership (COAG2008a).
- 16.
Commonwealth/COAG oversight of these directions gradually fell away following national political upheaval and successive government and administrative changes from 2010. State and territory reporting requirements related to all housing programs under the NHHA (see Chapter 4) are once again subject to a reinvigorated improvement process in 2019.
- 17.
Under NPARIH the Commonwealth identified a limited number of communities it would invest in with the intention to promote growth of larger and more viable settlements. This left many small communities not eligible to receive funds, especially in WA, Queensland, SAand NSW. In operation there was some push back from the original plans, but many small communities became the responsibility of the relevant state government (Habibis et al. 2016).
- 18.
Victoria and Tasmaniaexited NPARIH in 2014 and NSW in 2016.
- 19.
One of the review’s findings was that because the Commonwealth was the sole NPARIH funder, state and territory “jurisdictions lacked sufficient ‘skin in the game’ and hence the necessary incentive to drive efficiencies and improvements” (Towart et al. 2017, p. 3).
- 20.
Commonwealth divestment of remote area housing responsibilities to states and territories sits within a broader context of intergovernmental disputes over funding responsibilities. For example, in 2014, the Commonwealth announced the staged withdrawal of funding for essential services (such as power, water and rubbish) for 150 remote communities (mostly in WA). With affected states resisting replacement funding, this situation has resulted in an extant concern that more communities will be closed, thereby severing connection to land (Madden 2015).
- 21.
See, for example, NSW Government (2015) Foundations for Success, which offers practical guidance for all providers of social housing working with Aboriginal people and communities (http://www.aho.nsw.gov.au/-ASSETS/Housing-providers/documents/foundation-for-success-guide-for-social-housing-providers).
- 22.
Aboriginal Housing Victoria Ltd is registered not-for-profit housing company, which operates under the direction of a skills-based majority Aboriginal board.
- 23.
Victoria’s community housing regulatory system (2005) has two classes of not-for-profit housing organisations: housing providers and housing associations. The latter are “larger, more complex businesses with the skills, expertise and resources to manage, maintain and grow a viable social housing portfolio” (http://www.housingregistrar.vic.gov.au).
- 24.
Small home lending programs tailored to Indigenous clients have periodically operated in some jurisdictions, notably SA, WAandNT (Crabtree et al. 2012b, p. 40).
- 25.
Assistance offered could be a mortgage or part mortgage or a subsidised interest rate, together with financial advice.
- 26.
This data refers to income units not households, which would be a lower number. Indigenous Australians have the same entitlement to RA as non-Indigenous Australians. Social housing tenants with a landlord other than the state/territory public housing authority can receive RA.
- 27.
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Pawson, H., Milligan, V., Yates, J. (2020). The Indigenous Housing Policy Challenge. In: Housing Policy in Australia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0780-9_7
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