Victoria’s truth-telling commission to tackle social housing, rentals and home ownership

The Yoorrook Justice Commission will investigate the challenges Indigenous Victorians face with homelessness and housing in a bid to ‘right the wrongs’ of the past.

CEO of Aboriginal Housing Victoria Darren Smith. Picture: Supplied / James Henry

Indigenous Victorians are grappling with “intergenerational trauma and poverty” and face barriers to social housing, the private rental market and home ownership, as the state’s truth-telling body seeks to progress housing justice for First Peoples.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission has released four issues papers, including one on housing and homelessness, and asks individuals and organisations to partake in the truth-telling process.

The commission revealed First Peoples in Victoria are 14 times more likely than non-First Peoples to seek homelessness services and more than 5800 are on the waiting list for social housing.

Inquiry commissioner Travis Lovett said a lack of housing options and supply disproportionately impacts Indigenous Victorians.

“There is an unbroken line of injustice experienced by First Peoples from colonisation to today. When Europeans arrived, Aboriginal people had their land stolen,” he told The Australian.

“Enormous wealth was created by settlers and the colonising government from stolen land, and that wealth was passed down across generations. First Peoples were denied these opportunities.

“Instead of intergenerational wealth, many Aboriginal people experienced intergenerational trauma and poverty.”

Travis Lovett will chair the Yoorrook Justice Commission's inquiry into housing and homelessness. Picture: Supplied / The Yoorrook Justice Commission

The paper submits that without a safe and secure home, Indigenous Victorians are denied social and economic participation, a decent education, good health and spiritual connection to country and culture.

“Secure housing is one of the foundations to a healthy life. Yet we know that First Peoples without secure housing face a greater risk of having children removed and put into care, which often acts as a pipeline into the criminal justice system,” Mr Lovett said.

“I say this as someone who grew up in public housing – in the Fitzroy flats and in Preston. Public housing stopped my family from being homeless, and gave me a platform to go to school and stay out of the child protection system.”

Yoorrook’s issues paper said the housing gap is part of “the enduring legacy of colonisation”.

“European colonisers took First Peoples’ lands through state-sanctioned policies and laws, violence and other means,” it said.

“Homelessness was not a concept known by First Peoples before colonisation.”

The commission will probe past and present injustices within the housing system and homelessness, racism in housing and options for First Peoples to enter home ownership.

Commission members, Kevin Bell AM KC, Sue-Anne Hunter, Professor Eleanor Bourke AM, Travis Lovett and Professor Maggie Walter. Picture: Brianna Young/Yoorrook Justice Commission.

Aboriginal Housing Victoria CEO Darren Smith welcomed the inquiry and plans to make a submission. He said the low vacancy rates make it difficult for people in the broader community to get into the private rental market, but Indigenous Victorians faced additional barriers.

“There’s no doubt that there is ongoing racism and it’s a fact for Aboriginal people in accessing housing in the private rental market,” Mr Smith said.

“We’ve got more complex and vulnerable families and households in the Aboriginal community (and) the other issue is that the disadvantage stems from dispossession going back hundreds of years and then the kind of practices of control over Aboriginal people.”

Mr Smith said discounts in the private rental market would help Indigenous Victorians access housing, and noted the state’s public rental assistance program helped, but said current investments are not enough to meet housing demands.

Research commissioned by the organisation revealed an additional 300 social houses would be needed each year to meet the growing Aboriginal population.

The Victorian government’s $5.3bn Big Housing Build, which will deliver more than 12,000 social and affordable homes, includes a commitment to ensure 10 per cent of all dwellings are allocated to support Aboriginal housing needs.

“We think there needs to be a separate investment by the government directly into Aboriginal housing and it shouldn’t be based on 10 per cent of what the government is investing,” he said.

AHV is responsible for managing more than 1500 rental properties for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.

The organisation turns around about 100 houses a year.

“Sometimes they’re singles and if we’re turning around 100 houses a year by ourselves, we’re a long way from being able to meet the needs in the community,” Mr Smith said.

Dr Heather Holst (left) is Victoria’s first Residential Tenancies Commissioner. Picture: Ellen Smith

He said he expects ideas on increasing home ownership to arise during any treaty negotiations.

Victoria’s Residential Tenancies Commissioner, Heather Holst, welcomed Yoorrook’s housing inquiry and said First Nations renters will provide the strongest evidence for effective reform. “Due to low levels of home ownership, First Nations people are more reliant on the private rental market than other Australians but there are many barriers for them to access decent and affordable rented housing,” Dr Holst said.