Description

This project examines the ‘challenge’ of urban Indigenous homelessness to deepen the understandings of the many ‘drivers’ of such homelessness: cultural dispossession, intergenerational poverty, mobility, sociality, cultural responsibilities, and extended kinship care. These drivers are then considered alongside current or shifting policy priorities and the needs of individuals and communities, including the landscape of available, overstretched, and non-existent services.

Some of the key points include:

• Australia-wide, one in 28 Indigenous people were homeless at the time of the 2016 Census.
• The Indigenous homelessness rate is 10 times that of non-Indigenous people (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2019; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] 2019a).
• The Indigenous population in Australia is expected to grow to around 1,060,000 by 2031. Housing policy frameworks and investment must account for this growth in population.
• A continuity of dispossession, racism, profound economic disadvantage and cultural oppression shapes the lived experience of many Indigenous Australians today.
• Indigenous homelessness is culturally distinct. The drivers of Indigenous homelessness and the entry and exit points to accessing services are different. The notion of ‘home’ and ‘homelessness’ are culturally mediated terms.
• There is a lack of dedicated services for Indigenous Australians experiencing homelessness in urban areas, despite their acute over-representation. This combines with other systemic barriers to explain their acute overrepresentation among specialist homelessness services.