Attachment: Impact of remote Indigenous community housing programs on crowding, hygiene and functional state of houses
Introduction
We investigated the impact of remote community building and maintenance programs on crowding, hygienic condition and functional state of houses in order to inform efforts to improve the living environment of children.
Methods
We conducted surveys of house infrastructure and hygienic condition and interviewed householders (n=291) before and after the implementation of building and maintenance programs in ten communities in the Northern Territory.
Results
At a community level the building programs had a small impact on crowding, hygienic conditions and the functional state of infrastructure. Crowding was associated with poor functional state of infrastructure and poor hygienic conditions. The association between function and hygienic condition is not uniform -there were no houses with poorly functioning infrastructure and good hygienic conditions, but there were houses with adequately functioning infrastructure and poor hygienic conditions. Other factors associated with better function of houses included the presence of a washing machine and health ‘software’ such as soap and household cleaning agents and equipment. Other factors associated with better hygienic conditions included a functioning telephone, fewer young children per house, the presence of health software and fewer negative life events reported by the householder.
Conclusions
Improving the functional state of infrastructure is necessary, but not sufficient, to achieve improved household hygienic conditions. In addition to significant scaling up, building and maintenance programs need to be supported by programs that effectively address other determinants of household hygiene in order to improve the living environment for children in these communities.
How were Indigenous people involved and how was permission sought?
Participation agreements describing the research process and reporting of findings back to communities and to wider audiences were negotiated with community councils and housing organisations of all communities involved. All houses surveyed and interviews conducted were subject to informed consent of the householder and other interviewees. The core research team included an Indigenous man with wide experience of community housing and governance. We employed local community residents to assist research teams with field work. We provided verbal and written reports on the research findings for each community to the community council and housing office.