Housing: A solid foundation
Apprentices (left to right) Hayden Jude, Bobby Abbott and Lloyd Turner are proud of their work in the Alice Springs town camps.
Training and employment opportunities are flowing from housing programs in the Alice Springs town camps.
“It feels good helping out around the communities and building things like kitchens, pantries and wardrobes for them,” says 19 year old apprentice Hayden Jude, who grew up in the Top End of the Northern Territory at Gunbalanya.
Jude works for the commercial arm of Ingkerreke Outstation Resource Services, an Aboriginal non-profit corporation that is supplying steel products for new houses being constructed in Alice Springs town camps.
His fellow apprentices are Bobby Abbott, 23, and Lloyd Turner, 22, who are Alice Springs born and bred. They come from big local families and they are both very aware of the changes taking place in their home town.
“It’s a good opportunity for young Indigenous blokes to contribute to the wellbeing of communities,” Abbott says. He is back home after twelve months in New South Wales and is keen to finish his apprenticeship.
“I’m pretty much related to everyone in all the communities in Central Australia and further out. Whoever is going to be receiving all this stuff we’re making, I’m family to them as well.”
“It’s pretty cool, doing work for our people, getting them proper things, like people living in other places have. Everybody’s got to be equal you know. It’s good to see money spent on our people and we’re doing a good job for them,” adds Turner.
“The good thing about working for Ingkerreke is your first day here you’re not doing apprentice work like sweeping the floors and stuff, you’re pretty much right into it from the very first day,” Jude says.
Abbott agrees. “You sort of set out your own day and do what you have to.”
The work of the Ingkerreke apprentices is contributing to the Australian Government’s Alice Springs Transformation Plan.
Find out more
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 current 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 affordability 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 improving 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. Every state and the Northern Territory met or exceeded their new housing target and exceeded their refurbishment target;
- 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; and
- 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.
Working on the ground
As part of these national partnerships the Government is supporting several major housing initiatives.
With the assistance of the non-profit sector, the Social Housing Initiative is supporting the construction of new public and community housing, and will see around 19,600 new homes built by June 2012. The initiative is assisting disadvantaged Australians, particularly those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and current tenants. Over 15,700 new 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 also 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 underway. Local support services are also being strengthened.
A fresh start for Alice Springs – a film about the Alice Springs Transformation Plan - is available on this website. It features interviews with Bobby Abbot and Lloyd Turner, footage and interviews about a new transitional accommodation facility, Alkherme Village, as well as interviews with participants and service providers from the Alice Springs Town Council’s Ranger Service, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Safe and Sober and Targeted Family Support Service, the Women’s Shelter, The Gap Youth Centre and Tangentyerre Council’s Brown Street Youth Facility.
You can also share Hayden and Lloyd’s experiences in Newslines Radio‘s October report on healthy homes.
Other initiatives
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.
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.
- the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which subsidises landlords to rent homes to low-income earners at 20 per cent below market rates.
- the Reconnect, which supports homeless or at risk 12–18 year olds and their families, to break the cycle of homelessness.
- the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, which is supplying training to improve health and living conditions in remote Indigenous communities.
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