AN INTERCULTURAL APPROACH TO THE PROVISION OF SOCIAL HOUSINGFOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE LIVING IN URBAN AREAS WOULD MAXIMISEOPPORTUNITIES TO STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIPS AND WORK WITHINDIGENOUS ORGANISATIONS. THIS APPROACH HAS THE POTENTIAL TODELIVER MORE DIVERSE HOUSING CHOICES AND ADAPT SERVICES TO LOCALCULTURAL NORMS

Easthope, Hazel

Green, Susan

Liu, Edgar

Memmott, Paul

Milligan, Vivienne

Phillips, Rhonda

Milligan, V

Easthope, H

Liu, EY

Green, S

Phillips, R

Memmott, P

UNSWorks

How is social housing best delivered to disadvantaged Indigenous people living in urban areas?

University of Queensland eSpace

AH
UR
I R
es
ea
rc
h 
& 
Po
lic
y 
Bu
lle
tin Issue 157   January 2013  ·  ISSN 1445-3428
AN INTERCULTURAL APPROACH TO THE PROVISION OF SOCIAL HOUSING 
FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE LIVING IN URBAN AREAS WOULD MAXIMISE 
OPPORTUNITIES TO STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIPS AND WORK WITH 
INDIGENOUS ORGANISATIONS. THIS APPROACH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO 
DELIVER MORE DIVERSE HOUSING CHOICES AND ADAPT SERVICES TO LOCAL 
CULTURAL NORMS.
This bulletin is based on 
research conducted by 
Associate Professor 
Vivienne Milligan, Dr 
Hazel Easthope, Dr 
Edgar Liu and Professor 
Susan Green from the 
AHURI UNSW-UWS 
Research Centre and 
Ms Rhonda Phillips 
and Professor Paul 
Memmott from the 
AHURI Queensland 
Research Centre. The 
research explored 
policies and practices 
for delivering social 
housing to Indigenous 
households in urbanised 
settings, using case 
study and consultative 
methodologies.
How is social housing best 
delivered to disadvantaged 
Indigenous people living in 
urban areas? 
KEY POINTS
Adopting an intercultural approach requires more flexible, •	
adaptive and accountable policy and service responses 
that acknowledge the cultural norms and circumstances of 
Indigenous clients.
Fostering close working relationships between Indigenous •	
agencies/networks and the mainstream service system 
offers great potential to improve services at the local level. 
Engaging Indigenous organisations in policy-making and 
planning processes at an institutional level would support 
this.
Indigenous employment strategies to attract, train and •	
retain Indigenous housing workers remain important. Non-
Indigenous housing workers also need training to further 
develop their skills and understanding of how best to 
support Indigenous clients.
Tenancy management, allocation and rent setting policies •	
need to beculturally responsive.
Specific planning, resource allocation and accountability •	
frameworks designed to promote better outcomes for 
Indigenous clients in urban areas are required at the 
institutional level.
CONTEXT
Reliance on social housing services among 
Indigenous households in urban areas is high and 
increasing. This is explained by the broader social 
and economic exclusion processes impacting on 
many Indigenous people; these include profound 
economic disadvantage, discrimination in the private 
rental market, comparatively poor mental and 
physical health and a lack of culturally appropriate 
housing forms. The vast majority of social housing 
services to Indigenous clients are provided by 
state housing authorities, supplemented by a small 
contribution from specialist Indigenous-run housing 
organisations and community housing providers.
There are examples of good practice and service 
innovations that are responsive to the needs of 
Indigenous clients in the social housing system. 
This research focuses on forms of service provision 
in social housing that are appropriate for Indigenous 
Australians, the respective roles of mainstream and 
specialised housing agencies in urban settings, 
and how the connections between these agencies 
operate.
RESEARCH METHOD
A workshop was held with highly experienced 
Indigenous housing workers from five jurisdictions. 
In-depth case studies were undertaken at two 
regional urban sites (Dubbo, NSW and Townsville, 
Qld) and one metropolitan site (Dandenong, Vic). 
These locations were chosen because they have 
significant numbers of Indigenous households living 
in urbanised settings and multiple mainstream and 
Indigenous-specific government and community 
housing services in operation.
The case study research involved consultation 
with community leaders, interviews (41 people), 
informal discussions, focus groups (31 people) 
and site visits. The case studies offered instructive 
examples of what happens on the ground in 
the housing service delivery system, as well as 
showcasing many positive examples.
An important element of this research was ensuring 
that the voices of Indigenous housing service 
providers and households were heard and that 
all research methods were culturally appropriate. 
Indigenous participation was achieved throughout 
the case studies and in the workshop.
KEY FINDINGS
Adopting an intercultural approach to the 
provision of Indigenous social housing
Intercultural service delivery would comprise a 
mix of culturally adapted mainstream services and 
culturally specific services working collaboratively 
to provide a diversified and integrated response to 
the housing needs of Indigenous people. The aim 
of this would be to promote culturally respectful 
and proficient service provision and enable choice 
for Indigenous clients.
An intercultural approach would mean that 
mainstream and Indigenous-specific service 
providers would operate within broadly common 
rules, standards and accountability, but with the 
flexibility to apply policies and practices appropriate 
for their clients. The drivers of service performance 
would focus on client experience and client 
outcomes. This would help to balance tensions 
between sustaining tenancies and efficiency 
measures, such as arrears management and 
tenancy control.
Intentionally adapting mainstream services
Enabling mainstream service providers to better 
meet the needs of Indigenous clients requires 
improving and culturally adapting policy settings 
and service delivery modes in the social housing 
system. Policies that are incompatible with 
Indigenous cultural norms and lifestyles can result 
in unintentional breaches of tenancy and lead to 
eviction. For example, travel for cultural needs such 
as ceremonial or kinship practices can result in 
temporary crowding in some households, extended 
absences, the need to accommodate long-stay 
visitors and sometimes the need to transfer 
tenancies between family members. The purpose and 
rationale for policies that restrict people from doing 
this are not necessarily explicit or understood.
Our systems are designed for households 
that don’t change much, not designed for the 
fluidity	and	mobility	of	Indigenous	community.	
It’s so rigid … People visiting is always seen 
as a problem rather than in a positive light. 
(interview, government worker)
This high mobility can also mean that complex 
rent setting policies are difficult for households to 
manage. Income-based rent setting can make it 
difficult for householders to keep up with reporting 
requirements, and also acts as a disincentive for 
work. Allocation policies that do not take account 
of the need for an extra bedroom for visiting 
kin can also impact negatively on Indigenous 
tenants. There is a need to explore ways to flexibly 
adapt such policies while still ensuring that living 
and dwelling standards are maintained and rental 
arrears or default is avoided.
Effective communication between tenants 
and housing providers
Mainstream social housing services often rely on 
formal written communication with tenants. This 
can be problematic for some Indigenous clients 
given the specific literacy skills required. There is 
a need for face-to-face communication with clients 
in culturally safe and welcoming service settings. 
Outreach services are important, as Indigenous 
settings (rather than government or mainstream 
offices) are preferred by many Indigenous social 
housing applicants and tenants.
Many Indigenous clients won’t come up 
in the lift. So we do a lot of business in the 
foyer or through outreach. We also provide 
an outreach service, every fortnight, to 
an Indigenous health service and to a 
homelessness drop-in service. (interview, 
public housing manager)
An emphasis on face-to-face communications 
would also assist in building local networks 
between housing service providers and clients 
while improving frontline workers’ understanding of 
local lifestyles and cultural norms.
Workforce strategies
Deliberate workforce strategies to better address 
recruitment, retention and development of 
Indigenous staff are essential to an intercultural 
approach. These strategies should target 
Indigenous people in leadership roles. Training in 
housing, workplace culture, mentoring, training, 
career progression, and managing work and family 
is required by Indigenous staff. It is also important 
to recognise the difficulties faced by Indigenous 
people who work in government agencies.
It’s	 difficult	 for	 Indigenous	 staff	 to	 work	 in	
housing—you are likely to have family or 
be a tenant. That creates problems when 
you are in the community and know people. 
Boundary issues must be hard. (interview, 
government manager)
In recognition of these tensions, Western NSW has 
created a specialist role for frontline Indigenous 
staff that does not include compliance work, such 
as issuing notices of tenancy breaches.
Increased housing choices, options and 
pathways
The system-wide shortage of social housing has 
particular impacts on Indigenous households. This 
can result in inappropriate housing allocations due 
to the severe mismatch between the demand for and 
supply of housing that is of a suitable size, location, 
and design for Indigenous households. Often the 
housing that is available is of variable quality. 
Social housing stock needs to be appropriate for 
the range of household types (including large 
families) to meet the needs of the Indigenous 
population.
Dwelling transfers to rebalance the size of 
mainstream and specialist providers (as applied in 
Victoria), provision of new products (e.g. affordable 
rentals, shared equity and rent-to-buy), more 
service partnerships and negotiated individual 
tenancy transfers between service providers 
illustrate ways to improve tenant outcomes.
Case study findings
The case studies highlighted the vital roles that 
are played by Indigenous organisations at both 
strategic and operational levels. For example, 
having a strategic Indigenous housing agency 
within government (e.g. the Aboriginal Housing 
Office in NSW) provides a valuable internal source 
of advice to governments and helps to mobilise 
ADDRESS Level 1, 114 Flinders Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 TELEPHONE +61 3 9660 2300
FACSIMILE +61 3 9663 5488 EMAIL information@ahuri.edu.au WEB www.ahuri.edu.au
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This material was produced with funding from Australian Government and the Australian States and Territories. 
AHURI Limited acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from the Australian, State and Territory Governments, without which this 
work would not have been possible.
DISCLAIMER The opinions in this publication reflect the results of a research study and do not necessarily reflect the views of AHURI Limited, 
its Board or its funding organisations. No responsibility is accepted by AHURI Limited, its Board or its funders for the accuracy or omission of any 
statement, opinion, advice or information in this publication.AH
UR
I R
es
ea
rc
h 
& 
Po
lic
y 
Bu
lle
tin
ahuri.edu.au
solutions and options through engagement with 
local Indigenous networks and services.
One of the strategic initiatives has been the move 
in Victoria to establish a viable and sustainable 
Aboriginal-run housing association (Aboriginal 
Housing Victoria Ltd.) that can operate alongside 
the mainstream social housing service system. 
This has involved staged transfer of nearly 
1200 former public housing dwellings that were 
designated for Aboriginal people to the new 
housing association, which will be financially 
self-sustaining and able to generate some 
growth.
NSW is implementing a strategy to systematically 
build and grow its Aboriginal housing sector 
so that it can operate effectively as a key 
component of a diversified services system 
alongside the well developed mainstream public 
and community housing sectors in that state. 
New service standards, rent reform, backlog 
maintenance funding, a customised regulatory 
model and a sector strengthening strategy are 
key elements.
While there is no similar framework guiding the 
future of Indigenous social housing services 
in Queensland, Townsville provided a positive 
example of a local service system that was 
adapting to high levels of Indigenous need 
in innovative ways. Strong and effective 
relationships and high levels of collaboration 
exist across the social housing service system 
in that city. A particular focus of providers 
working together is on negotiating appropriate 
allocation decisions and sustaining ‘at risk’ 
tenancies. The local Indigenous housing service 
provider, Yumba Meta, plays a critical part in 
this network.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
There are powerful examples of good practice 
and service innovations that are responsive to the 
needs of Indigenous clients in the social housing 
system, particularly at the local level, but these 
tend not to be widely recognised and do not 
attract adequate policy or institutional support. 
An intentionally designed and well-resourced 
Indigenous housing service strategy for urban 
areas would overcome the limitations of the 
current system and drive service improvements.
Institutional and sector reform must be locally 
driven. This could be achieved through the use 
of jointly developed local/regional approved 
five-year service plans that align with state wide 
objectives but are adapted to local conditions.
Locally, Indigenous organisations are the hub of 
Indigenous communities, playing critical roles 
such as promoting access to services, providing 
and interpreting information, supporting tenants 
and communities, etc. Linking with these 
organisations would support the process of 
adapting mainstream service delivery practices; 
however, dedicated resources are required to 
enable this to occur.
FURTHER INFORMATION
This bulletin is based on AHURI project 70569, 
Service integration and Indigenous housing.
Reports from this project can be found on 
the AHURI website: www.ahuri.edu.au 
or by contacting AHURI Limited on 
+61 3 9660 2300.


http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:289679/UQ289679_fulltext.pdf

How is social housing best delivered to disadvantaged Indigenous people living in urban areas?

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UNSWorks

University of Queensland eSpace