Scoping the capacity of Indigenous Community Housing Organisations

Summary

Remote location, inadequate governance procedures and lack of economies of scale undermine the organisational performance of Indigenous community housing organisations.


Project Number: 80316
Research Theme: Indigenous_Housing, Public_and_Community_Housing
Project Leader: Anda, Martin
Funding Year: 2005
Research Centre: Western Australia

Research and Policy Bulletin

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 111: The capacity of Indigenous Community Housing Organisations

Remote location, inadequate governance procedures and lack of economies of scale undermine the organisational performance of indigenous community housing organisations.

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Description

This research examined the organisation capacity of ICHOs. It analysed data from the 2006 Community Housing and Infrastructure Needs Survey, conducted telephone surveys with 69 ICHOs, and completed an in-depth qualitative evaluation of 22 of these.

The key findings of the research are:

  • The ICHO sector is heterogeneous, varying by location, size, whether the organisation delivers non-housing services, legislation of the jurisdiction, and unique community history.
  • ICHOs managing more dwellings (10% of ICHOs manage 100 plus stock) tend to perform better than those managing fewer dwellings.
  • ICHOs in urban or large regional centres (47%) tend to perform better than average, and those in extremely remote locations, worse than average.
  • ICHOs managing housing in more than one settlement type tend to perform better, regardless of location.
  • ICHOs that specialise in housing management (12 out of 68), rather than managing multiple types of service (e.g. support and community services), tend to perform better.
  • Building the capacity of ICHOs requires a focus on financial management, governance structures and decision making skills. A once-off injection of funds will not resolve such issues.

More Information

Download now Final Report: No. 125: Scoping the capacity of Indigenous Community Housing Organisations
2091 KB PDF Document

Download now Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 111: The capacity of Indigenous Community Housing Organisations
534 KB PDF Document

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