The housing careers of Indigenous urban households
The housing careers of Indigenous urban households Report
- Author(s): Birdsall-Jones, C. L., Corunna, V.
- Published: 2008
- Publisher: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Abstract: The AHURI research agenda item that this research stems from called for an analysis of the Indigenous housing experience conceptualised as housing careers. The agenda linked this research to National Research Venture 2: 21st Century Housing Careers, which is a large-scale study of general Australian housing experience and aspirations in the twenty-first century. The Indigenous housing careers research was conceived of as a discrete project that would speak to the larger program of research on this issue. At first glance, there is a limited basis for comparison between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous experience of housing and housing careers because the drivers of these two situations are very different (Birdsall-Jones & Christensen 2007; Beer, personal communication 2006). For example, kinship structure and kin-oriented relationships are important in Indigenous housing in a way that is not mirrored in the non-Indigenous housing experience. This point notwithstanding, an analysis of Indigenous housing experience can be used not only to inform policy development but also to develop existing paradigms of housing experience. The course of Indigenous housing careers in social housing tenancy tends to be a function of the relationship between Indigenous people as tenants and the social housing agency, in this case Homeswest1 (Western Australia). More particularly, we refer to relationships characterised by conflict between tenant and social housing agency. The key aspects of this conflict are housing-related debt, wait listing (both ordinary and priority), maintenance and repairs, and the degree to which administrative processes, principally application and provision, are transparent to Indigenous people. Where the resolution of these issues remains the current concern of the individual’s life, the housing career is subsumed in the constant effort to obtain a resolution. Participants represented the situation of finding themselves outside the Homeswest system as correspondingly being outside the ideal course of their conception of housing careers. With all its perceived faults – poor ongoing maintenance and repair, poor maintenance at the start of the lease, and the opacity of Homeswest’s processes – Homeswest was still the goal to be achieved for our participants, in the main. While Homeswest may become more expensive as household income rises, even worse is the prospect of losing Homeswest eligibility altogether and being thrown into the private rental market without recourse. In these circumstances, people may have only one choice left to them – to go and live with their relations. Despite what they represented as a poor standard of service, opacity of processes and low-quality housing stock, most participants preferred, or aspired to, Homeswest-subsidised housing. This is despite the availability of bond assistance and rent assistance. This is partly because the cost of rent from Homeswest is generally lower than that available in the open market, but it is also a matter of stability. The notion of stability revolves around two themes in these interviews. One is the sense of personal knowledge of a home that comes from longevity of tenure, which sometimes stretches over more than one generation of a family. The other is the value placed on being able to achieve such longevity. Affordability is low in Western Australia and vacancy rates are correspondingly low. Participants were well aware of the problem, and although the shortage of social housing stock might be a strong force in pushing people into private rental housing, even stronger is the problem of affordability of private as opposed to social housing. However, if participants were in work, they might lose their eligibility for the Homeswest housing subsidy. The crisis in affordability and vacancy rates together with the value placed on longevity of tenure raises anxiety among Indigenous people. Participants expressed the worry that Indigenous people might no longer be able to afford to live in their ‘own’ towns. Interestingly, some participants asserted that long-term rental was a kind of ownership, particularly regarding rental dwellings that had been leased by several members of the same family community, sometimes over several generations. Another outcome of the crisis in affordability and vacancy rates is overcrowding, as families are forced to choose between homelessness and living with kinfolk. Householders are under pressure to house kinfolk in varying numbers and for varying periods of time. A few participants had moved from rental accommodation to home ownership. The assistance of family was important in this process. Because of the need to save money for a deposit, people would live with their kinfolk either rent free or at a much reduced rate. Ideologies of ownership in families were important here, as were concepts connected with home ownership. All participants who were currently purchasing their own homes, both on the open market and on assisted-purchase schemes, had entered the market prior to 2001. This is significant because it was at around this time that the gap between housing price growth and household income in Western Australia began to widen. In Perth, from 2003 the growth of this gap began to accelerate. Between 2005 and 2006 the median house price rose by 31 per cent, and continues to rise (Anthony 2006). This followed the national pattern, which showed established house price increases particularly between the 2000/01 and 2003/04 financial years. Project home prices increased substantially less than established house prices, with an average of 21 per cent for project homes as opposed to 65 per cent for established homes (ABS 2007). Life crises of all kinds were found to have an adverse effect on housing careers. The experience of violence, serious illness and the death of a spouse all had the same effect of reducing the individual’s capacity to manage housing-related issues. In some instances, the life crisis appeared to be the result of poor housing or inappropriate programs of support, which acted to prevent the participant from engaging in activities that would advance or at least progress their housing career. Certain practices of the social housing provider with regard to dwelling standards and the way problem tenants are dealt with seemed to create ‘ghetto-like’ conditions in the country towns. Similar conditions were not reported in Perth.
- Urls: https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/112
- Publisher Location: Perth
- Work Type: Final report
- Keywords: Homeless, Labour