Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

private dwellings, of which three-quarters were rented. The percentage of Indigenousyouth in rental accommodation was about twice the national youth average. Indigenousyoung people were far less likely to have the security offered by home ownership. Inaddition, about one-third of all Indigenous young people living in private dwellings statedthat the accommodation was unsatisfactory. The main problems reported were the needfor repairs, not enough bedrooms and not enough living space (ABS 1996 page 12).Indigenous families are 20 times more likely to be homeless than non-Indigenousfamilies (Dodson 1996 page 79).Employment and incomeThe national picture of Indigenous employment and income shows littleimprovement in recent years.The 1994 ABS survey reveals that despite efforts to increase the status of theIndigenous labour force to that of the general population there was no movement in thisdirection during the early 1990s. Most new jobs for Indigenous people were connectedwith the expansion of Community Development Employment Programs (CDEP). Oneresult of the reliance on CDEP employment has been a greater level of part-timeemployment among Indigenous workers than among the general workforce (ABS 1995bpage 1). The 1994 review of the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy found thatIndigenous people were three times more likely to be unemployed and experience greaterlonger-term unemployment, the employment situation of Indigenous men had worsenedin urban areas, average incomes had declined relative to the national average and therehad been no reduction in welfare dependency (cited in ABS 1995b page 7). Familyincome levels are significantly influenced by employment levels.The 1991 Census showed that 60% of single parent Indigenous families had incomesof less than $20,000 a year, compared to 43% on non-Indigenous single parent families.Half (51%) of two parent Indigenous families had incomes of less than $30,000 a year,compared to 20% of non-Indigenous two parent families. Yet Indigenous families are onaverage nearly twice the size of non-Indigenous families (Groome and Hamilton 1995 page24).According to the 1994 ABS survey, the proportion of Indigenous youth employed orlooking for work (the labour force participation rate) was 58%. Of these, nearly half wereunemployed (47%). The unemployment rate of Indigenous young people aged between15 and 19 years was 50%, more than twice that of all Australian youth (22%) (ABS 1996pages 16-17). The level of unemployment among Indigenous young people is animportant indicator of the likelihood of coming into contact with juvenile justice agencies(Gale et al 1990, Walker and McDonald 1995).Of those Indigenous young people who were employed, some one-third wereworking on CDEP projects. In rural areas, over 62% of young people employed were onCDEP projects (ABS 1996 page 17). Nearly half of the Indigenous young peoplesurveyed by the ABS were dependent on some form of government payment as the main