There are two aspects of overcrowding. One is that there are not enough houses but the other is that often groups of 10, 20, 30 people may choose to live together and their only option to do so is to squueze everyone into a space designed for mum. dad and 2 and a half kids. This is also a major cause of the rapid disintegration of buildings, every hinge, tap and window is subjected to many times the workload of the average nuclear family home.

The housing bureacrats in their wisdom then started building bigger and stronger houses. Kitchens that could feed 12 instead of 4. Bedrooms that can sleep 4 instead of 1 or 2. Massive doors with massive hinges. lounges and verandahs big enough for the whole mob to sit around. But this has only institutionalised the overcrowding, everyone is still in each others space and face all day every day. They are bigger homes but they are still the same old nuclear family architecture.

The answer (I reckon) is smaller buildings, lots of cabins surrounding a centre building. Close enough to be connected but seperate enough for everyone to have their own headspace, just like the old fasioned gunyas around a camp fire. A decentralisation of architecture allows for the natural process of womens and mens business too, rather than everyone sharing the same space all the time.

Money, money, money. At present there is unspent millions set aside for reparing and building houses that sits in bank accounts and has done for years. Governments brag about how much is allocated to Aboriginal housing, but much of it is just a figure in an account book. This money needs to not just be increased, but some mechanism needs to be constructed that can actually spend it on the ground. The political pressure of the housing crisis in places like Palm Island have forced a bit of spending here and there, mainly overdue maintenance, but the general constipation of housing bureacracies has retained much of the presently available cash.

The major obstacle to more houses is lack of land title on which to build them.

Some may find these interesting…..

An example of the problem…….

Palm Island Housing Report
“Doing Housing”
http://www.kalkadoon.org/index.php/palm-island-housing-report/
A report on housing issues on Palm Island from an Aboriginal perspective
for non-Aboriginal policy makers. Prepared by kalkadoon.org for the Queensland Greens March 2006.

A solution?

“Out of the box. A vision for housing”
http://www.kalkadoon.org/index.php/out-of-the-box-housing-vision/
- a hypothetical model written to provoke discussion, not as a blueprint. It is based on - the N.T.’s Central Land Council’s policy of communal land ownership and private home ownership, eco-village design principles, and the specific circumstances of the communities of Palm Island and Boulia in Qld,