Crying out for a healthy home; Now that the national indigenous house building quotas have been met (at least for now), it may be time to ask what has been built and upgraded. In the NT questions from those on the ground are starting to get a public voice. HH has been advocating strongly for two years baseline and end of project house function data to show improvement ………..this would be a good time to show the public and the participating communities what has and has not been done. Crying out for a healthy home.pdf Thanks to the NT Centralian Advocate and Cairns Post
Crying out for a healthy home part 2 ; Data, data, data……. the Condition Assessment Tool (CAT phase 2) HH knows the SIHIP program in the NT is confidential and won’t reveal the inner workings of the program. HH was happy to allow full use of our survey sheets and questions by the NT and SIHIP. It would be good to see how the questions were used and that the results of the surveys were getting back to the communities where the work was done. Is the survey another asset survey or is it looking at the well being of the people using the houses ….. as per the nationally endorsed National Indigenous Housing Guide?
Thanks to the Nepal sanitation project donors: The line “from little things big things grow” has never seemed more apt. In November it is hope that the 62nd toilet and waste system will be completed in the small Nepalese village of Bhattedande. 450 people will have toilet facilities and many families have a source of free cooking fuel from biogas generated by the toilet and animal waste. HH has produced a small book outlining the project for all donors. We thank you all and will let you know what is planned next for Nepal. Cover BVSP Nepal book.pdf
Outback Spirit: Book release in September by a friend of Healthabitat Sue Williams. Outback Spirit (Sue Williams, Michael Joseph, $32.95 tpb, ISBN 9781921518508, September)
New York City:
rumours of yellow Housing for Health caps running around parts of New York have yet to be confirmed. The New York City Housing Authority manages 178,000 public housing units in NYC alone. A big job! What would housing conditions be like in a big, urban centre?
Disappeared without trace!
Imagine a detailed independently produced review of the health effectiveness of 10 years Housing for Health. Costly - yes, hard to do -yes but what would it show? Imagine it showed a large health gain for a very modest investment in $ terms in improving houses. Also imagine the works were carried out by a majority of local indigenous people. Surely this would be called evidence based proof. Surely this would be used to influence policy and the health of indigenous people would improve and the health gap would be narrowed. Keep imagining. Lost without trace 10 years of Housing for Health.pdf
Meanwhile …..Common Ground USA, another friend of Healthabitat continues to think big!
Common Ground President Rosanne Haggerty announced the launch of the “100,000 Homes Campaign”, an effort to house 100,000 long term and vulnerable homeless by July of 2013, at 1:30 p.m., Monday, July 12, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave NW in Washington, DC
www.commonground.org
And well done to the Army!
The Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program has been working away since the late 1990’s. It has a current project in the north of South Australia and an alert friend of HH sent through the survey sheets developed by the Army for house assessment. They have borrowed from the National Indigenous Hosuing Guide and produced a simple useful survey. For more background on the Army program and a glimpse of the survey check the links.
www.defence.gov.au/opEx/exercises/aacap/history.htm and AACAP Housing Inspection Sheet.pdf
An evidence base for the effectiveness of Housing for Health:
NSW Department of Health and the Aboriginal Environmental Health Unit have completed a major evaluation
of the health benefits of 71 Housing for Health projects that have improved the living conditions of over
9,000 people living in the 2,230 houses throughout NSW. The results are dramatic and the details of the work are available now in the publication “ Closing the Gap - 10 Years of Housing for Health in NSW” soon to be available in PDF form on the NSW Department of Health (and linked to the HH) website. The cover of the report and a key page are attached here.
HH congratulates NSW Health, Jeff Standen and the Aboriginal Environmental Health Unit and all those
involved in the work.
See NSW Health HFH report.pdf
Infrastructure works not required ?
At a recently convened meeting of senior state and commonwealth managers who have influence over the
current Fixing Houses for Better Health program and associated Research and Development projects
unanimously agreed that the Infrastructure R&D project should not even be considered being run in two
states. Given the previous success of this R&D work saving water, engaging local community staff in
water monitoring and repairs the decision seemed remarkable. A large, national infrastructure survey was
given as part of the reason. HH reproduces here an early example of what was achieved in Central Australia
under the last contract in the Infrastructure R&D project and hopes the states excluded from similar
works are comfortable with the power, water and waste systems.
Tangentyere Water story.pdf
Mirror mirror on the wall………..
A painting contractor working for a SIHIP alliance team in the Barkley region
commented on the radio in Alice Springs one morning recently, in frustration, that
SIHIP was like a mirror because all his supervisors and senior management when asked about details
always stated that they were looking into it.
Words and actions…..
an Architects for Peace talk about improving houses in Alice Springs
See the details attached Words_2010_March.pdf
Web site changes
Healthabitat (HH) has made some web site changes to improve the site ……….
please take a look around ……… we are keen to receive comments / thoughts / advice / criticism
(constructive) by email to hhkarin@a1.com.au How many square metres of enclosed space, wet areas and highly
serviced areas (showers, toilets, laundries and kitchen areas), covered unenclosed areas such as
verandahs and surrounding yard areas. Does the house include fencing and yard areas, cooling systems
and insulation?
- how is the $450,000 cost broken down……on site materials and labour, services and infrastructure (power water and waste connections), design and supervision costs, the builder’s margins and profit, the Alliance team’s margins and NT Government costs?
- if the average cost is $450,000 and the range of locations vary from the town of Alice Springs to remote island locations, such as Groote Eylandt,
what are the lower and upper ends of the cost scale? The attached quiz entry form should be filled in and returned to HH…….the person closest to the real costs
will win the prize of a golden calculator!
The New House Cost Game Entry Form.pdf
Some entries are already in and are attached may help you win.
The New House Cost Game Entry 1.pdf ,
The New House Cost Game entry 2.pdf.
Reporting back
Following the completion of the 2006-2009 Fixing Houses for Better Health (FHBH) contract with the
Department of Families and Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, we are pleased to be
able to attach the results of the work.
This was the largest single contract ever undertaken by HH and the first to combine both the Fixing
Houses for Better Health work with seven research and development (R&D) projects (some of which had
many sub parts).
The FHBH work was important in improving over 2000 houses and the living conditions of over 12,000
indigenous people. The R&D work improved houses, the surrounding community environment, helped staff do better work and added to the store of detailed knowledge required to make better housing.
Summaries of the FHBH work and associated research and development work are attached here. FHBH 5,6,7,8 summary web version.pdf , RD Brief summary web version.pdf
Please also go to the R&D area of this web site for more information and if you have any comments or further questions, contact hhkarin@a1.com.au
Guess the cost of the new house!
Imagine you are building a new house ……would you be keen to know the price of the house and what you
may be getting for the money?
Under the SIHIP program in the NT, following the SIHIP review mid 2009, the average new house cost was pegged at $450,000. HH thinks this is not unreasonable for a remote area house well designed and built. What we are not so sure about is how the $450,000 will be used.
OK ……so the quiz asks you to guess:
- what you will get for $450,000?