Healthy housing

To maintain good health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to live in healthy and safe environments with adequate housing and access to suitable services and facilities [43192]. Unfortunately, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face a number of social and economic barriers to secure housing, such as having been moved from their Country, experiencing low levels of home ownership, and difficulty obtaining rental housing due to generally lower incomes, racism and discrimination [44145] [46426] [47330].

As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are over-represented in social housing and also experience high levels of homelessness, which can lead to overcrowding [47330]. Housing is often inadequate or poorly maintained, particularly in remote communities. This has a significant impact on health and wellbeing as the built environment of the home and shared facilities contributes significantly to the excess burden of infectious disease, which in turn, contributes to the burden of chronic illness [44607] [46769] [46424].

Reducing the impacts of overcrowding, by carrying out repairs and maintenance, and ensuring adequate home health hardware (plumbing, taps, showers, toilets and sewage systems) can reduce the prevalence of infectious disease and chronic illness [46769] [46304]. For example, having enough rooms for members of the household, developing strategies for managing extra visitors, and having access to a consistent and clean water supply in healthy bathrooms and laundries, can reduce the high rates of group A streptococcal infections that disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and which can lead to the chronic illness rheumatic heart disease (RHD) [46304]. It is also important to have a consistent and reliable power supply for refrigerating food and medicines, and cooling houses, particularly in regard to heat health associated with climate change [45432].

Indigenous Environmental Health Practitioners are often involved in health promotion and community education about environmental health matters, working closely with workers in other professions and government and non-government agencies. Their duties include performing environmental checks on houses and providing a wide range of services including housing repairs and maintenance, home health hardware repairs, pest control and waste removal. They also engage in resource management (such as water and power supply) [20152].