Aboriginal Housing

The Inquiry into Aboriginal Housing made 165 recommendations which have been summarised into 24 key themes (Attachment 1).  Strategies to address the emerging issues in those 24 themes are currently being finalised and will be available at this site within a few weeks.  Over the course of the next 6 months it is envisaged that these 24 themes will be further collapsed into six key workplan areas which are identified in the Joint Statement. The key areas are:

• Building on the best - learning from successful initiatives in Western Australia and elsewhere and using these to provide better housing for Aboriginal people.
  
  
• Communicating – making our message clear and finding the best ways to deliver it to Aboriginal people.
  
  
• Responsiveness – engaging more with Aboriginal communities in the design of any new housing to meet local needs, improving our response to complaints and appeals.
  
  
• Review and Reform – seeking new ways of doing business and making sure that these new ways cater for the most disadvantaged people.
  
  
• Training – making sure staff participate in high quality and relevant training that improves their capacity to deliver services to Aboriginal people.
  
  
• Monitoring and reporting – keeping track of what needs to be done and reporting to stakeholders on progress.

Next Steps

1. Responsibilities and timelines for agreed strategies against the 24 themes to be finalised. Each strategy will be mapped to one of the six workplan areas.
   
   
2. In the process of developing the current set of strategies, a range of more ambitious strategies have been developed largely by the Equal Opportunity Commission and ShelterWA for consideration against each of the 24 themes.  These need to be analysed by a small expert group with a view to considering feasible proposals.  A two stage process is proposed:
   
   
   1. A workshops comprising experienced officers across the Department to go through the proposals with the EOC and ShelterWA representatives in detail to identify ideas that merit further discussion and those that are not feasible.
      
      
   2. The output of this workshop will be added to the already agreed strategies and the total set of proposals developed into action plans for each of the six key areas. 
      
      
3. Consultation in metropolitan, regional and remote areas will be undertaken over the next 6 months to finalise work plans against each action plan.  The form of this consultation needs to be considered and integrated with any broader agency consultation.
   
   Any other advice provided by stakeholders will also be considered in this process. Initial comments may be sent to Housing and Works at askdhw@dhw.wa.gov.au.
   
   
4. The outcomes of this consultation process will also inform the Department’s broader plan for Improving Aboriginal Communities




The Director General of the Department will be responsible for the overall monitoring and implementation of these actions.  In doing so he will seek advice from the Aboriginal Housing and Infrastructure Council which reports to the Minister for Housing.  The Department will provide an update at six monthly intervals to the Equal Opportunity Commission and report on key achievements in its Annual Reports.

A reference group to guide these next steps and to seek appropriate input from peak bodies and individuals will be formed between DHW and  the EOC