Improved housing standards for remote Indigenous communities

State and Northern Territory housing departments have improved housing standards on remote Indigenous communities, but much remains to be done, an AHURI report has found.

The report, ‘Reviewing housing management on remote indigenous communities’, examines the management and delivery costs of social housing in Indigenous communities in NT, WA, SA and Queensland.

Assoc Prof Daphne Habibis from the University of Tasmania who led the research, said, ‘Delivering adequate tenancy management and maintenance to remote Indigenous communities will always require housing subsidies. The Commonwealth, states and territories need to maintain their involvement in a long term approach to improve housing, increase housing options and maximize opportunities for local employment in service delivery.

Problems were greatest when services were delivered in a one-size-fits-all approach that took little account of remoteness and culture. The most cost effective and successful service delivery arrangements were those that were adapted to the local context and based on a partnership between the state housing department and knowledgeable Indigenous providers, delivering a culturally appropriate service.

Delivering adequate tenancy management and maintenance to remote Indigenous communities will always require housing subsidies

Although rates of households being behind in their rent payments are reducing, housing providers are expending extensive resources and paying a high cost responding to the changes in the makeup and incomes of their tenant households. Tenants are concerned about managing rental payments due to high levels of poverty and disability and the cost of living in remote communities. Alternative rent models, such as community-wide levies and property-based rents would be better for these communities.

While crowding is reducing in some communities it remains unacceptably high in other locations, especially the Northern Territory, and parts of South Australia and Queensland.

Nevertheless, the report found high levels of satisfaction amongst tenants for most aspects of housing service delivery, especially where communities had received new and refurbished housing. Tenants agreed that housing arrangements had improved under state housing departments.