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Indigineous Homelessness Report

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INTRODUCTION

A Discussion Paper on Indigenous Homelessness in Victoria,

The Aboriginal Housing Board of Victoria (AHBV) considers that the specific issues of homelessness and inadequate housing of Indigenous people in Victoria have not received sufficient attention by government. The Board has taken on the responsibility to ensure that Indigenous issues are adequately represented in the public policy arena, including feeding into the Victorian Homelessness Strategy. The Victorian Homelessness Strategy has conducted state-wide consultations and produced a Consultation Paper (VHS, 2000) and a Working Report (VHS, 2001) with the broad aim of constructing a whole of government response to homelessness in Victoria.

The AHBV is responsible for the management of the Victorian Aboriginal Housing Programme of more than 1000 properties throughout Victoria and is the main provider. Having recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary as an agency, the AHBV is moving towards a new statutory structure external to the Office of Housing.

A major issue for the Indigenous community of Victoria is the implicit assumption underpinning government policy that Aboriginal people in Victoria are an insignificant minority with no distinct Aboriginal cultural life.  The Indigenous community of Victoria is vigorous, culturally alive and politically active on Indigenous issues.

Previous national research contained in the report Homelessness in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Context and its Possible Implications for the Supported Accommodation and Assistance Program did not include Victoria in the field work and, although the results are useful, the specific issues of relevance to the Victorian Indigenous community were not identified.

The AHBV identified the need for better information on Indigenous housing and homelessness issues and a research project was developed to investigate Indigenous homelessness and inadequate housing in Victoria. Funding was provided by the Department of Human Service through the AHBV to conduct the study. Following a selective tender, a team from RMIT University was commissioned to undertake the study on behalf of the Board.

The project was designed to provide a research base for the Aboriginal Housing Board of Victoria to advocate for the needs of Indigenous Victorians who experience homelessness. The projects aims were:

·       To investigate the nature and implications of homelessness within the Victorian Indigenous community.

·       To facilitate discussion with and among Indigenous people and organizations in order to raise awareness about the homelessness issue.

·       To selectively review the range of housing and support organizations currently assisting Indigenous communities in the state with respect to dealing with homelessness.

·       To identify, where possible, particular solutions or better practices for delivering support services and reducing the risk of homelessness for vulnerable Indigenous communities.

·       To provide input to the continuing Victorian Homelessness Strategy to ensure that the needs, interests and future well-being of Indigenous Victorians are adequately addressed in the final strategy.

The purpose of this discussion paper is to stimulate discussion and thinking by raising some of the issues and questions that inform the meaning of homelessness for Indigenous people in Victoria and begin to sketch out the profile of issues that need to be addressed. On fifteenth December 2000, a Melbourne workshop was held to canvass some of the issues. A wider, but not a comprehensive, state-wide consultation was undertaken in February-March 2001. The project’s resources only provided for  limited community consultation. A broader consultation will take place after the report from the present study is completed. While the research project focuses specifically on the issue of homelessness, like almost all complex issues this one is linked to a larger set of as yet largely unresolved issues.

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