First Steps in Closing the Gap
Healthy Homes
Housing and homelessness across the Australian community is a priority policy area for this Government. Most Indigenous people live in urban and regional areas and face significant housing challenges. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to have low incomes or be in single parent or multi-dependant families, making it difficult to pay market rents and meet financial institutions’ criteria for loans.
Only one quarter of Indigenous adults live in homes owned or being purchased by a member of the household, compared to more than three quarters of non-Indigenous adults.
These issues are compounded by the current highly competitive rental market and more general housing affordability issues.
The current COAG reform processes are exploring the important links between Indigenous housing and broader housing policies, and will consider the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban and regional areas.
However, the poorest housing and greatest housing need is undoubtedly in remote communities. Here, overcrowded and sub-standard housing is the norm. Isolation and climate make houses difficult and expensive to build. They wear out quickly.
Families cannot function in overcrowded and poorly maintained housing. Children will not do well at school if there is no quiet space for study and they cannot sleep at night.
In the Northern Territory, the Little Children are Sacred report highlighted the link between ‘overcrowding and massive exposure to substance abuse and household violence – not to mention sexual abuse and other violence directed against children’.
The Australian Government has already made major funding commitments to Indigenous housing. Over the next four years we will be investing $1.6 billion in remote Indigenous housing, with reformed delivery arrangements.
The revised arrangements will start as new housing bilateral agreements are concluded with State and Territory Governments. These arrangements must deliver effective provision and management of public or community housing which ensures tenants are held to public tenancy requirements.
The Government’s housing reform agenda is most advanced in the Northern Territory. We are pursuing a strategic alliance approach under which three design, construction and training consortiums will undertake the work in partnership with the Australian and Northern Territory Governments.
The alliance will provide:
- community involvement in how the work is delivered;
- greater transparency of the costs and risk in remote work;
- innovation in design and the development of better delivery models; and
- employment and training of local Aboriginal people.
The Government is also currently reforming community housing management and maintenance in a partnership with the Northern Territory Government. In 64 communities, the Territory Government will manage the housing stock according to its Remote Public Housing Management Framework.
After a transition period, the new arrangements will provide:
- waiting lists based on need;
- effective maintenance and upkeep procedures; and
- support services to ensure that tenants understand their rights and responsibilities and can meet their obligations, including paying rent and maintaining their home.
Similar reforms will be introduced in other jurisdictions.