Indigenous homelessness
Indigenous homelessness Report
AHURI Final Report
- Author(s): Christina Birdsall-Jones, Vanessa Corunna, Nalita Turner, Gemma Smart, Wendy Shaw
- Published: 2010
- Publisher: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Western Australia Research Centre
Abstract: This research was commissioned by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) to undertake a comparative analysis of Indigenous homelessness in the contrasting settings of major cities and regional country town centres. The research sought to compare the understandings of Indigenous homelessness held by Indigenous homeless people, and those of the providers of services to Indigenous homeless people. It offers an analysis of the relationship between homelessness, household overcrowding and mobility patterns in the context of Indigenous culture. The broad policy context according to which this research was commissioned was: ‘to understand the place, house and home needs of Indigenous peoples and to identify actions required to address these needs through housing and other service responses that secure sustainable solutions and support stable life conditions’ (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute 2008). To this end, an anthropological consideration was undertaken of the social and cultural drivers of Indigenous homelessness. In order to understand ‘the place, house and home needs’ of Indigenous people, it was necessary to differentiate those aspects of Indigenous culture which structure the Indigenous response to homelessness from the forces of the wider Australian society which act on the ways in which Indigenous people solve the problem of housing in the context of poverty and a shortage of affordable housing.
Notes: ISSN: 1834-7223 ISBN: 978-1-921610-33-2