Contemporary Health Issues: Housing and Indigenous Australians

Running head: CONTEMPORARY HEALTH ISSUES
CONTEMPORARY HEALTH ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1CONTEMPORARY HEALTH ISSUES
Executive summary
Housing is a key determinant of poor health among the aboriginal Australians. Poor housing has
been linked to poor health outcomes and low socioeconomic status. This paper has provided the
rationale for why the NT government should provide funding for building housing for the
Indigenous population. The paper had emphasized on building of new houses on remote areas for
preventing overcrowding. Focus has to be given on infrastructure and sanitation. However, the
paper had also provided with positive recommendations that can close the social determinants to
poor housing for indigenous Australians.

2CONTEMPORARY HEALTH ISSUES
Table of Contents
Purpose............................................................................................................................................3
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Social determinants of health...........................................................................................................4
Health and health care.................................................................................................................5
Socio economic status (SES).......................................................................................................6
Policy Recommendations................................................................................................................7
Recommendation 1......................................................................................................................7
Improvement in the housing facility............................................................................................7
Recommendation 2......................................................................................................................9
Strengthening of the National agreement Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA).................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

3CONTEMPORARY HEALTH ISSUES
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment to provide a parliamentary submission on the issue of housing for
the indigenous government. The main aim is to help in the enquiry into housing for Indigenous
Australians.
Background
Indigenous Australians have always been represented in the homeless population. On
consensus night in 2011, 26,740 aboriginal people were experiencing homelessness. In the year
2016, among the indigenous people who had been homeless, three quarter were staying in
severely crowded dwellings that contained an average of 12 people in each dwelling (Australian
Government. 2017). 12% were staying in supported accommodation and 6 % had been staying in
improvised dwellings, sleeping out or tents. The remaining faction had been staying in other
temporary households. The indigenous people who suffer from homelessness are more likely to
be female and tended to be younger than the non-indigenous people experiencing homelessness
(Australian Government. 2017). Domestic violence, unemployment was the most commonly
reported reason for the homelessness (Australian government, Department of Social services,
2017).
The Australian Institute of architects had supported the urgent needs of the improvement
of the poor standards of housing for the indigenous population. The housing standards and the
essential infrastructure required for the indigenous communities is much below than what is
available to the nonindigenous counterparts (Baker et al. 2016). This is a clear proof that the
government has failed to provide a reasonable standard of housing for the indigenous people.