A Framework for Reimagining Indigenous Mobility and Homelessness

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of a national study on housing responses to Indigenous temporary mobility. Drawing on policy analysis and interviews with Indigenous users and service providers, it argues Indigenous temporary mobility is a largely overlooked area of housing need. Its invisibility is partly explained by its status as a form of Indigenous endosociality whose motives and forms are largely opaque to mainstream services. However, it also arises because of the difficulty of unravelling the relationship between culturally sanctioned temporary mobility, resistance to engagement with mainstream services and involuntary responses to housing exclusion. Lack of attention to the nexus between temporary mobility and homelessness represents a missed opportunity to improve the housing outcomes of this hard to serve population. The article proposes a framework for distinguishing different mobility groups as a first step towards improving early intervention and prevention of Indigenous homelessness.