The housing careers of Indigenous urban households

Summary

This project examines the housing careers of Indigenous urban households and compares them with those of non-Indigenous households. The research project will elicit these differences by: understanding the influences, motivations, experiences, decisions, and choices made by Indigenous households in urban areas; identifying housing access issues and barriers; examining the affect of household formation, economic participation and family and community responsibilities on housing careers.

Project Number: 80317
Research Theme: Indigenous Housing
Project Leader: Birdsall-Jones, Christina
Funding Year: 2005
Research Centre: Western Australia

Description

The following objectives for "achieving the vision for Indigenous housing" (BBF) have been identified:

• identify and address unmet housing needs of Indigenous people according to long term requirements and requirements connected with emergent situations;
• improve the capacity of Indigenous community housing organisations in planning and service delivery of housing needs through the acquisition of a broad  perspective of typical housing careers which takes into account life stages and special needs .

This research provides a picture of the housing careers of Indigenous people.  It is expected that this picture will show that Indigenous housing careers must be viewed in two ways; regionally and temporally.  First, we think that the housing careers of Indigenous people are structured over considerable periods of time by the patterns of large kin groups in their region. Second, regular and fairly rapid changes of residence occur, driven by the health, education and subsistence needs of the household.  In addition is the response of some households to conflict with the neighbourhood, local councils and police.  The large kin group with which a particular household is connected plays an important part in the process of housing change by offering temporary housing, as in the following examples;

• the household may, from time to time, become homeless, and in these situations will turn to kinfolk who currently have housing, or
• the household's own house becomes uninhabitable through loss of access to basic services such as electricity or gas, or;
• relatives in other households will provide alternative schooling to children of relatives from other regions;
• various other reasons connected with employment requirements, access to health care, particular lifestyle choices including alcohol and drug abuse, and so on.

Analysing the housing careers by region and through time will allow us to develop the concept of housing careers.  The analysis of this will take into account the unmet housing needs identified in the policy Building a Better Future (BBF). These are:

• the mix of housing type, tenure and location;
• the desire for home ownership;
• cultural, social and environmental factors; and
• people's life stages and special needs.

The findings from this research project will be compared with those from the AHURI National Research Venture, 21st century Housing Careers, as a point of comparison with non-Indigenous housing careers.

More Information

Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 098: Understanding the housing careers and aspirations of urban Indigenous households
141 KB PDF Document

Positioning Paper: No. 095: Aboriginal housing careers in Western Australian towns and cities
1.9 MB PDF Document

Final Report: No. 112: The housing careers of Indigenous urban households
1 MB PDF Document

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