‘Maintenance key to better remote Indigenous housing’

Housing supply, design, and maintenance in Indigenous communities needs to be reassessed in light of the growing impacts of climate change, new research suggests.

The
Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) says indigenous and
remote communities will experience climate change earlier and
disproportionately compared with urban settings.

In its latest report, AHURI says operating and maintenance costs are three times greater for remote housing than in capital cities, “so developing strategies to reduce these costs is a key goal”.

AHURI says adopting
life-cycle costing (LCC) frameworks “offer potential to reduce expensive
responsive repair work while guaranteeing amenity to householders … [and are] likely
to support local employment more effectively”.

AHURI
researchers targeted the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in
South Australia and north-western regional NSW to assess repairs and
maintenance requirements and the on-the-ground challenges of asset management
in the context of climate change.

Researchers also simulated housing performance drawing on data from Borroloola (NT), Alice Springs (NT), and Moree (NSW) to represent the three climate zones (tropical, arid, and hot/mild) where most Indigenous people in remote and regional Australia live.