Indigenous Housing

Indigenous Australians share with the First Nations peoples of the United States of America and Canada the unenviable location at the bottom of their nation’s distribution of economic goods. On many health and well-being indicators, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is even wider than between their overseas counterparts with housing exclusion one of the factors implicated in this (Productivity Commission 2009). Compared with Euro-Australians, ¹ few Indigenous Australians own their own home; there is a heavy reliance on social housing and a high proportion live in substandard housing (Flatau et al. 2004). Levels of homelessness are four times that of the non-Indigenous population and Indigenous households are ten times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2011). This disadvantage is not just in remote areas but is severe across the settlement hierarchy in Australia (Council of Australian Governments (COAG) 2010: xiv).