Community Land Trusts and Indigenous housing options authored by Louise Crabtree, Hazel Blunden, Vivienne Milligan, Peter Phibbs and Carolyn Sappideen, with Nicole Moore for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute UNSW-UWS Research Centre March 2012 AHURI Final Report No. 185 ISSN: 1834-7223 ISBN: 978-1-921610-98-1 Authors Crabtree, Louise University of Western Sydney Blunden, Hazel University of Western Sydney Milligan, Vivienne University of New South Wales Phibbs, Peter University of Western Sydney Sappideen, Carolyn University of Western Sydney Moore, Nicole University of Western Sydney Title Community Land Trusts and Indigenous housing options ISBN 978-1-921610-98-1 Format PDF Key words Community Land Trusts, Indigenous housing options Editor Anne Badenhorst AHURI National Office Publisher Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Melbourne, Australia Series AHURI Final Report; no.185 ISSN 1834-7223 Preferred citation Crabtree, L. et al. (2012) Community Land Trusts and Indigenous housing options, AHURI Final Report No.185. Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian states and territory governments. AHURI Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. AHURI comprises a network of universities clustered into Research Centres across Australia. Research Centre contributions, both financial and in-kind, have made the completion of this report possible. The authors would like to acknowledge the members of the project’s Indigenous Advisory Group for their indispensable guidance and expertise. We would also like to acknowledge the specialist contributions to the work on this research project that have been made by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and Mr Charlie Hill, Executive Director, National Aboriginal Housing Association, Canada. We would also like to thank the individuals interviewed for this project for their generosity of time, effort and thoughts, and the Final Report’s anonymous reviewers for their engaged and thoughtful responses. DISCLAIMER AHURI Limited is an independent, non-political body which has supported this project as part of its programme of research into housing and urban development, which it hopes will be of value to policy-makers, researchers, industry and communities. The opinions in this publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AHURI Limited, its Board or its funding organisations. No responsibility is accepted by AHURI Limited or its Board or its funders for the accuracy or omission of any statement, opinion, advice or information in this publication. AHURI FINAL REPORT SERIES AHURI Final Reports is a refereed series presenting the results of original research to a diverse readership of policy makers, researchers and practitioners. PEER REVIEW STATEMENT An objective assessment of all reports published in the AHURI Final Report Series by carefully selected experts in the field ensures that material of the highest quality is published. The AHURI Final Report Series employs a double-blind peer review of the full Final Report – where anonymity is strictly observed between authors and referees. ii CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................VII LIST OF BOXES .........................................................................................................VII ACRONYMS ..............................................................................................................VIII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 1 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Background and context ...................................................................................... 7 1.1.1 Indigenous housing aspirations ................................................................... 8 1.2 Research questions, methods and process .......................................................... 9 1.2.1 Research questions .................................................................................... 9 1.2.2 Research phases ........................................................................................ 9 1.2.3 Approach to research questions ................................................................ 12 1.3 Introduction to Community Land Trusts .............................................................. 14 1.4 Report structure ................................................................................................. 15 2 AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE AUSTRALIAN CONTEXT .......................... 17 2.1 The affordable housing landscape in Australia ................................................... 19 2.1.1 Affordable rental housing .......................................................................... 20 2.1.2 Cooperative housing ................................................................................. 20 2.1.3 Shared equity and dual mortgage ownership ............................................ 22 2.1.4 Land rent schemes ................................................................................... 24 2.1.5 Rent-to-buy schemes ................................................................................ 24 2.1.6 Sweat equity schemes .............................................................................. 25 2.1.7 Mechanisms to preserve affordability ........................................................ 25 2.2 Overview of the evolution of government-assisted home ownership schemes in Australia ............................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Stakeholder views of innovative home ownership options .................................. 28 2.4 Concluding comments ........................................................................................ 29 3 THE INDIGENOUS HOUSING CONTEXT ......................................................... 30 3.1 Indigenous population, economic circumstances and tenure .............................. 30 3.1.1 Population ................................................................................................. 30 3.1.2 Employment and income ........................................................................... 31 3.1.3 Tenure ...................................................................................................... 31 3.2 Policy debates and Indigenous home ownership ................................................ 32 3.2.1 Government aims to increase home ownership for Indigenous people ...... 33 3.2.2 Home ownership policies for lower income and excluded households – international perspectives ......................................................................... 34 3.2.3 Indigenous home ownership on communal lands ...................................... 35 3.2.4 Creating housing options and tenure pathways ......................................... 35 3.2.5 Barriers to Indigenous home ownership .................................................... 36 3.2.6 Diversifying housing tenures beyond ownership and rental ....................... 37 iii 3.3 Current Indigenous home ownership support ..................................................... 38 3.3.1 Indigenous Business Australia home ownership support........................... 38 3.3.2 State initiatives .......................................................................................... 40 3.3.3 NSW Aboriginal Housing Office: Life Tenure model .................................. 41 3.3.4 Commercial sector initiatives .................................................................... 41 3.3.5 Summary .................................................................................................. 42 3.4 Indigenous home ownership in New Zealand and Canada ................................. 42 3.4.1 New Zealand ............................................................................................. 43 3.4.2 Canada ..................................................................................................... 44 3.4.3 Discussion ................................................................................................ 45 3.5 Indigenous organisations and governance ......................................................... 46 3.6 Concluding comments ........................................................................................ 47 4 CASE STUDY RESEARCH ............................................................................... 49 4.1 Case study data and scenarios .......................................................................... 50 4.1.1 Kookaburra Cooperative—a NSW regional umbrella organisation ............ 50 4.1.2 Magpie Local Aboriginal Land Council—a NSW urban LALC .................... 52 4.1.3 Currawong Local Aboriginal Land Council—a NSW regional LALC .......... 53 4.1.4 Bulbul—a regional NSW Aboriginal Corporation ....................................... 54 4.1.5 Mynah—a regional Queensland DOGIT .................................................... 54 4.1.6