Overcrowding for Indigenous households in non-remote areas

• Reach:

  National

• Focus area:

  Indigenous

• Status:

  Completed

• Evaluated:

  Yes

Overview

The Overcrowding for Indigenous households in non-remote areas research project aimed to develop a model of Australian Indigenous house crowding in order to provide policy-makers with ways to predict, measure and manage Aboriginal household overcrowding.

The project was conducted in two stages:

• in the first stage, researchers conducted an analysis of social science literature about crowding, focussing particularly on a subjective model of Indigenous overcrowding developed by environmental psychologist Robert Gifford (2007)
• in the second stage, researchers conducted crowding case studies in four non-remote locations in Australia: Mt Isa and Inala in Queensland, and Carnarvon and Swan in Western Australia.

The researchers found that cultural factors such as Indigenous peoples' kin ties and mobility patterns were significant in increasing stresses of overcrowding. So too were broader societal and economic factors such as scarcity of housing in Indigenous communities. The researchers also found that householders used a range of strategies to cope with stress. The most important of these included:

• firm administration of house rules by the householder
• sharing visitors among kin
• keeping rules in organising the sleeping spaces of large households.

A key implication of the study is that crowding cannot be identified through density measures alone, and that models of crowding should take into account both density and stress.

Abstract adapted from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

Contacts

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
Level 1, 114 Flinders Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Ph: (03) 9660 2300
Fax: (03) 9663 5488
Email: information@ahuri.edu.au

Evaluated publications

Memmott P, Birdsall-Jones C, Greenop K (2012)

Australian Indigenous house crowding.

Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

• Links
• View report: Australian Indigenous house crowding (PDF - 7.7 MB)
• View information: Overcrowding for Indigenous households in non-remote areas [project]
• View website: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

Links

• View information: Overcrowding for Indigenous households in non-remote areas
• View contact details: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
• View website: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute