A home away from home
Sharon Newchurch manages the Gladys Elphick Hostel in Adelaide, SA. Photo: Janette Milera.
For nearly four decades Aboriginal Hostels Limited has been providing vital temporary accommodation across Australia.
There are 110 Aboriginal hostels around Australia, stretching from Hobart to Thursday Island and a lot of places in between. Hostels provide a home for people without one, for those on the move for medical and educational reasons, and for others who just need a helping hand.
The 11-bed Gladys Elphick Hostel in Adelaide is a good example. It’s run by local Sharon Newchurch and although it’s one of the smaller Aboriginal hostels, she says Gladys Elphick helps hundreds of people each year.
“A lot of people get sent down here for medical reasons from APY communities, the Top End and as far away as Western Australia and New South Wales, and we also get a lot of people who come down from the country for work,” says Newchurch.
She says the key to the success of Aboriginal hostels is their friendly environment.
“A lot of our medical clients stay at the hospital until they can get a room here and the first thing they say to me is how cold and depressing the hospital is compared to the hostel and its warm, inviting atmosphere.
“I always try to give them a warm welcome, show them around the hostel and introduce them to the other residents so that people feel comfortable on their first day of being here. That means a lot to people, especially those who are not used to the big cities or are worried about their health.”
Gladys Elphick resident Martin would be homeless without the hostel. On the waiting list for a housing trust home, he says Aboriginal hostels are a great support for him and others in his situation. He says the hostel has given him the stability he needs to return to study.
“Some people see it as a homeless shelter so there can be a stigma about staying here but I’ve got privacy, my own room and three meals a day, and no one judges me here,” he says.
Newchurch says her favourite part of her job is meeting all the different residents.
“We might all be Aboriginal but we’re from different areas, speak different languages and have different ways of doing things so I’m always learning new things about Aboriginal culture.”
Find out more
Aboriginal Hostels Limited is an Australian Government owned company.
As part of its work to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage, the Australian Government wants to assist more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to live in healthy homes. It’s working to reduce homelessness and overcrowding and to improve the standard of housing.
And it’s assisting Indigenous people to own their own homes, as the percentage of those who are home owners is only half that of other Australians.
National partnerships on housing
To deliver on these agendas the Australian Government is working in partnership with State and territory governments to improve the supply and affordabilty of housing.
This is through a National Affordable Housing Agreement, a Social Housing Initiative, and national partnerships on remote Indigenous housing, social housing, and homelessness.
The National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing recognises that improving housing conditions is fundamental to achieving improvements in health, education and employment and to closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage.
This agreement will see the construction of 4,200 new homes, and the upgrading of 4,800 existing homes in remote Indigenous communities across Australia, and so far:
- in 2010–2011, 490 new houses and 2,288 refurbishments were completed in remote Indigenous communities across Australia, exceeding the target of 463 new houses and 2,012 refurbishments. All States and the Northern Territory at least met their new housing targets and exceeded their refurbishment targets.
- overall since the commencement of the national partnership on 1 January 2009 more than 800 new houses have been completed and 3,100 houses have been rebuilt and refurbished nationally.
- in addition to housing in remote areas, 28 houses have been acquired in regional centres to support Indigenous people from remote communities to access employment and training opportunities.
Decent housing is essential for protecting children, improving health, education and employment and for rebuilding positive community norms.
Working on the ground
As part of these national partnerships the Government is supporting several major housing initiatives, including:
- with the assistance of the non-profit sector, the Social Housing Initiative, which is supporting the construction of new public and community housing, and will see around 19,600 new homes built by June 2012. Over 15,700 of these homes are already complete. Households identifying as Indigenous have taken up tenancies on 14 per cent of the newly constructed housing.
- the Australian and Northern Territory Governments are working in partnership to improve the lives of residents of the Alice Springs town camps through the Alice Springs Transformation Plan. New homes and short-term accommodation are being constructed as part of the plan, and refurbishment and rebuilding of existing homes is under way. Local support services are also being strengthened.
Other initiatives
So that more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can live in improved housing the Government is also supporting:
- Indigenous Business Australia to provide home loans at a discounted rate to Indigenous people. IBA has assisted more than 14,000 Indigenous individuals and families into home ownership.
- The Office of Township Leasing manages long-term leases between the Australian Government and traditional owners. Township leases primarily provide certainty of tenure over the land within the township. The land itself remains the property of the traditional owners but is leased to the Executive Director to manage on a long-term basis. This means the businesses will be more willing to set up and operate within the township and lending organisations will be more likely to provide loan facilities to these businesses. Long-term leases also allow community members to effectively purchase their own homes, should they wish to.
- the National Rental Affordabilty Scheme, which subsidises landlords to rent homes to low income earners at 20 per cent below market rates.
- the Reconnect program, which supports homeless or at-risk people aged 12 to 18 years and their families to break the cycle of homelessness.
- the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, which is supplying housing and construction training to remote Indigenous communities.
- the Household Organisational Management Expenses Advice Program, which helps families facing difficulties to maintain tenancies or home ownership.
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