Indigenous homelessness in Regional Australia Presentation by Prof

Indigenous homelessness in Regional Australia Presentation by Prof Paul Memmott Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (AERC) Institute for Social Science Research and School of Architecture The University of Queensland (Produced with support from Fa. HCSIA and AHURI) 1 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

We were commissioned to do a series of research papers on this topic. Today I’m going to briefly report on 6 papers. The first paper is titled: Why are special services needed to address Indigenous homelessness? (Memmott, Birdsall-Jones and Greenop 2012) 2

Here we put the case that special services are needed to address Indigenous homelessness due to the culturally specific nature of this phenomenon. Patterns of Indigenous culture, albeit at times dysfunctional, are included in the lifestyles of both public place dwellers and large households in rental housing, as well as underlying the lifestyles of those who are experiencing spiritual homelessness. These patterns are influential both in terms of contributing to the pathways into the various forms of homelessness and understanding the nature of the lifestyles of these people in their homeless circumstances. (raises a cultural relativity argument put by Peter Sutton) 3 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Culturally specific aspects of such lifestyles include • • • cultural identity (including land-based identity), kinship practices (including rules where people can sleep), camping behaviour, socio-spatial residential groupings, externally oriented behaviour, circular mobility within socio-geographic (or cultural) regions, and associated seasonality influences. Also: • alcohol consumption style, • forms of family violence. 4 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Indigenous pathways into homelessness can involve longitudinal factors that impact from early childhoods spent in dysfunctional communities with institutional and marginalised histories. They also involve situational factors, some of which also derive from colonial contact histories and directed cultural change. Based on my empirical research among Indigenous Australians, I have differentiated three categories of homelessness: (i)public place dwellers; (ii)housed people who are nevertheless at risk of homelessness, and (iii)spiritually homeless people. 5 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Different combinations of services are needed for individuals in these different categories. The way Indigenous ‘homelessness’ is defined or categorised influences the types of response strategies that are implemented by Indigenous organizations, government and non-government agencies to address this phenomenon (Memmott et al 2002). The high priority services that ‘Parkies’ or ‘Long Grassers’ may want or need are not necessarily always concerned with housing or accommodation issues. Holistic problem planning is best done through collaborative projects (gov’t/NGO/Indig. ) with a high degree of Indigenous control and direction setting. 6 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

A number of critical service response categories to Indigenous homelessness that are at the forefront of good practice, are also culturally distinct, being designed to address and intervene in the types of Aboriginal lifestyle behaviours listed above. Examples include: - • night patrols, • shaming processes, • imposed Aboriginal rule and value systems, • imposed transport of individuals within cultural regions to alternate residential settings, and • caring practices by relatives from particular kin categories. (And more later) 7 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Indigenous at-risk of homelessness (hidden or secondary homelessness) This category covers Indigenous people to whom the phrase ‘at risk of homelessness’ applies and who reside in some form of housing but are at risk of losing it or its amenity. They can be divided into four distinct sub-categories (i)people lacking secure tenure over their houses or accommodation; (ii)people whose housing is architecturally sub-standard rendering it unsafe or unhealthy; (iii)people experiencing crowded housing; and (iv)dysfunctionally mobile persons being in a state of continual or intermittent residential mobility. 8 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

AHURI Aboriginal Crowding Study Findings – cultural drivers of large household formation Cultural drivers that influence Aboriginal households to become large households included: - • people’s kin ties and desire for an immersive sociality, (relational personhood theory) • caring senior women as frequent household heads, • the cultural trait of demand sharing, • the cultural trait of mobility in Indigenous communities, and • householder’s skills in negotiating and policing cultural rules. 9

Categories of Indigenous ‘Homeless’ People Spiritually homeless people A state arising from either: (a)separation from traditional land, (b)separation from family and kinship networks, or (c)a crisis of personal identity wherein one’s understanding or knowledge of how one relates to country, family and Aboriginal identity systems is confused. [Current paper on Stolen Generation examples: Cases of Bruce Trevorrow, Jack Charles the actor, etc. ] 10 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The second Fa. HCSIA research paper is titled: The Challenge of Monitoring Growth in Regional Indigenous Homelessness (Memmott, Greenop, Haynes, Clark and Western, 2013) 11

Earlier research identified 25 regional centres where Indigenous homelessness is regularly reported by the local media. Newman Geraldton The critical question is: Is it growing? And how do we monitor its growth (or decline)? 12 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

In the 2 nd report we examine methodological difficulties with analysing current Census data on Indigenous homelessness in these 25 cities of regional Australia, and analyse the cause, consequences and possible methodological and policy implications for this metric problem. We argue there is a strong case for all levels of government, as well as NGOs, to be able to accurately monitor where growth in Indigenous homelessness is occurring in regional Australia and where ‘hot spots’ of growth and anti-social behaviour might be. 13 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The ABS use of geographical units on homelessness, which incorporate both urban regional centres and smaller nearby towns, make town-specific data opaque. This hinders the possibility of understanding the differences between regional towns and cities and prevents a meaningful analysis of the specific incidence and causes of homelessness at local, regional and broader scales. 14 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

We propose and recommend additional methods for measuring Indigenous homelessness including in-depth qualitative analysis and longitudinal data collection to facilitate deeper understandings of culturally specific aspects of homelessness such as high Indigenous mobility. We also highlight the possible use of text analysis software to monitor Internet use of keywords in relation to homelessness in particular known geographical areas, to aid in tracking hotspots of activity and interest in homelessness. (leximancer) 15 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

If ABS is unable to render such a service, it is recommended that Fa. HCSIA commission consultants to carry out scoping studies of homelessness in regional towns at least once every five years to monitor whether circumstances are improving or deteriorating in the 24 locations identified in the map. 16 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The third research paper is titled: “No Wrong Door? Managing Indigenous Homeless Clients in Mt Isa” CASE STUDY Jimaylya Topsy Harry Centre: a good practice response to homelessness in Mt Isa. (Memmott and Nash 2012) This is the first of 3 papers on the practice of service delivery. 17 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The Centre: clients • Indigenous (c. 30 -40 residents) • ‘Homeless’ and alcoholic • Complex needs - ‘in crisis’ • Short, medium, long-term and repeated stays – ‘recycling’ 18 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Map of Mt Isa region showing the home areas of most clients at Jimaylya Topsy Harry Centre (Long 2005: 359) The catchment of clients straddling two State jurisdictions. 19 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Plan layout of Jimaylya Topsy Harry Centre, Duchess Road, Mt Isa. 20 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Core principles 1. Harm minimisation (drink in moderation in managed environment), 2. Accommodation leading to housing (residential pathway), and 3. Cultural maintenance and the building of social capital and resilience. 21 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The Jimaylya Centre: management and approach • Founding manager (there 10 years) • Staff mostly Indigenous • Residential • Client-centered • Case managed • Training • Indigenous perspectives prevail 22 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Staged accommodation 23 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Programs • Managed drinking • TAFE courses: Literacy & Numeracy, Living Skills, Basic Mechanics • Support services: Ø ATODS Re alcohol, petrol and glue sniffing Ø HHOT Health Homelessness Outreach Team (daily health check ups) Ø RAGOSS Riverbed Action Group Outreach Support Services 24 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Managed drinking Monitor Photos: Rob Willetts 2011 25 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Training Room Christmas Party 26 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Strengths • Inclusive • Point of Entry – a monthly free barbecue (for public place dwellers where counsellors entice clients into the Centre) • Safe accommodation • Case-management by Counsellor • Managed alcohol consumption (limits set by health practitioners; peer group controlled to avoid early stoppage by staff) Challenges • Housing ‘bottlenecks’ (2 speed economy – high housing demand) • Clients re-cycling 27 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Trying to understand where people fall through the cracks between services and become chronically homeless. © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland 28

Two Key Findings Addressing Indigenous homelessness: • Integrated multi-service programs need to be planned at whole city and regional scales by multi-sector collaborative teams, taking into account cultural factors in both causal analysis and solution analysis. (Otherwise people will fall through the cracks) • At present, the least understood problem component is spiritual homelessness. This needs urgent attention. (What’s preventing people returning to their communities? Subsequent case study work happening. ) 29 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

The fourth study paper is titled: “Managing the Shape of Homelessness in the Western Australian Mid-West Region” (Dr Chris Birdsall-Jones, Curtin University, 2013) 30

Topic: Planning at City and Regional Scales Aim To examine the response to Aboriginal homelessness in the context of a designated state housing region, the Midwest Region of the Department of Housing of Western Australia (towns of Carnarvon, Meekatharra and Geraldton - the regional centre). 1. What group in the town presented the highest profile of homelessness? 2. Identify responses by the town practitioners to their needs, and; 3. How coordinated were these agency responses? 31

Three models of response to Aboriginal homelessness were apparent: • Meekatharra: a “silo” approach; no coordinated approach toward delivering effective, targeted services (worse scenario agencies remain apart and uncommunicative). • Carnarvon: an informal alliance organisation of agencies, the Aboriginal community, the shire and the police. • Geraldton: a similar sort of alliance formalised through a memorandum of understanding between Aboriginal community organisations, state and federal agencies, NGOs and the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH). • The region as a whole: little evidence of a coordinated regional response. 32

One finding was a critical category of people The presence of children roaming the streets at night is a common concern for all three research sites; they are at risk of being on a pathway to homelessness, having become dysfunctionally mobile. In Meekatharra, a grim picture of child home abandonment owing to an unsafe home environment caused by drink and drug parties. The lack of coordination among the various services in town does not cause this problem but it does prevent a coordinated, effective solution being developed. 33

The problems faced by the Meekatharra children constituted a worrying example of the breakdown of the family structure. One of the most important purposes of Aboriginal family structure is to provide avenues of help for children whose parents are known to be failing to look after their children properly, but in Meekatharra this extended family structure was not serving the needs of the children in this particular way. (Attempts were made to foster a culturally based solution to the problem of the night-roaming children by bringing together a number of the Aboriginal women elders of the town, and taking these children to their grandmothers’ or their aunts’ homes. This effort failed not because of a failure of Aboriginal culture but a failure to obtain funding to support the elders’ efforts. ) 34

The fifth research paper: “The Women’s Refuge and the Crowded House: Aboriginal Homelessness Hidden in Tennant Creek” (Memmott, Nash, Baffour, Greenop, 2013) 35 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

In studying the good practice in the Women’s Refuge we found: - • The Refuge is a microcosm of all the social problems in Tennant Creek and the Barkly Region • The case histories of the Refuge are an index of the town’s hidden homelessness • To verify that there are many high density households in Tennant Creek in stress, a basic survey was carefully carried out with statistical controls Q. How can an eight-bed Women’s Refuge provide a good practice service taking in 20 to 60 women per month in a town with a reported widespread crowding problem? 36 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

Women come from The Barkly Region to use the Refuge. But also bush visitors come to Tennant Creek for recreation and drinking. TENNANT CREEK 37

Table: Reasons why women come to Tennant Creek Women’s Refuge and how they relate to categories of homelessness and public place dwelling. 38

Map of Tennant Creek showing the proportions of population that are Indigenous, based on Collector Districts, at the 2006 Census (ABS 2007). Note that eight Town Camps now known as Community Living Areas (CLAs). Our sampling approach for our survey drew on knowledge of numbers of Aboriginal people in the various Collector Districts (Town districts and 8 Town Camps). Women’s Refuge 39

Household Survey Results The survey found for the 80 households sampled, that the average number of people per household was 9. 91 (standard deviation of 4. 71). The average number of people per bedroom per household was 3. 14 (standard deviation of 1. 52). Early November 2012. Location 2 – 8 Community Living Areas (Town Camps) 40

[optional part of talk] A stress model of crowding § Certain personal, social, and physical antecedents lead to the experience of crowding, including: § § § A variety of individual differences, Resource shortages, The number of other people nearby (density-intensity), Who those others are, and What they are doing. § Sensory overload (eg. noise) and a lack of personal control are psychological processes central to the experience of crowding. § The consequences of crowding include physiological, behavioural, and cognitive effects, including health problems. (Gifford 2007: 217. ) 41

Table: Survey findings on extent of (a) official, versus (b & c) self-perceived crowding and (d) self-perceived stress from crowded conditions amongst 80 households in Tennant Creek ‘Yes’answer ‘No’answer One finding is that large households do not necessarily self-perceive themselves to be crowded. 42

The most critical finding of our analysis is that the mean size of Indigenous households in Tennant Creek was 9. 91 in early November, whereas the 2011 Census of Tennant Creek gives household size as 2. 9. The two explanations: (i) the practice of the Census not to count visitors, and (ii) possible undercount in the Census. 43

Due to the small Barkly population and the high circular mobility, it is not readily possible for women victims to simply avoid or evade their families and husbands. Therefore the Refuge clients often return to their problematic circumstances resulting in a cyclic pattern of return visits to the Refuge. 44

With the knowledge that there can be an average of around ten Aboriginal people per house with a range of three to 25 during an off-peak time of the year in terms of bush visitations, the understanding of why there are high stress levels amongst many households and relatively high frequencies of family violence becomes clearer, and consequently why between 13 and 39 adult women arrive per month at the Refuge. 45

Most recent (2011) ABS Census figures may mislead because they do not reveal the full extent of this complex and multifaceted problem. Most remarkably, the figures do not suggest that there is a problem in Tennant Creek. Until the policy and funding bodies understand more fully the details of Aboriginal crowding and homelessness in the region, the Tennant Creek Women’s Refuge will remain under-resourced and oversubscribed. 46

Is there room for an improvement in how the Census records visitors in general (by usual residence definition), and in particular for Indigenous households? For by masking or discounting the number and presence of visitors in regions of high circular mobility, the Census fails to capture the information that is salient to understanding the underlying reasons why social problems (including FV and DV) and personal psychological health problems (including stress) are prevalent and increasing in particular regional cities of Australia. 47

Summary Research Paper No. 6 “Indigenous homelessness in Regional Australia” (Memmott, Nash and Birdsall-Jones, 2013) 48 © Paul Memmott, University of Queensland

6. Final Report Recommendations 1 -4 1. That funding cycles for service agencies extend (3 -5 years at least): • Short funding cycles constrain the planning, management and delivery of services in the regions and increase risk of homelessness; • Under-reporting of crowding (hidden homelessness) has led to underrecognition of housing and support services needs; and • The recruitment, training and retention of Aboriginal staff requires more funding for services to extend from reactive to proactive programs. 49

2. that policy makers embed a local/cultural perspective into homelessness: • Customary cultural practices underlie the particular lifestyles of Aboriginal homeless and public-place dwellers; • Understanding Aboriginal homelessness requires a cross-cultural perspective – certain aspects of culture can counteract homelessness; • More refined categories of Indigenous homelessness reflect the reasons for (or pathways into) homelessness; and • Spiritual homelessness is a special category of Indigenous homelessness. 50

3. that support be given to partnerships between different levels of government and local collaboration between service agencies: • An holistic approach to homelessness within a region brings better understanding of the social and economic forces operating on Aboriginal people. • Interagency collaboration, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations is crucial to the effectiveness of service delivery; and • Integration of services based on partnerships at different levels of government with community organisations can assist people paths out of homelessness. 51

4. that the broadest definition of homelessness be used to include all those people ‘at risk’: • Many housed people are at risk of homelessness and it is not accurately revealed in census statistics; • The high priority services that public place dwellers may want/need are not always concerned with housing or accommodation, and so cooperation between agencies can work effectively to address complex needs. • Finally, we recommend that the Australian Government fund more research on unstable tenancies and ways of supporting Indigenous people at risk of homelessness. 52

THE END 53