Housing issues

Homes 'unfit for animals' | News | The Australian

It seems to rarely be mentioned in media reports about housing quality issues in aboriginal communities, but isn't one of the problems here (at least in some areas of Australia) the complicating cultural issue that a house in which a person has died will be abandoned for some time (months I think) before any person will re-occupy it? I actually forget who was telling me about this - I remember discussing it with a brother, but maybe I have read about it somewhere else.

I don't know how big a problem this really is, but with death rates in some communities being what they are, it certainly would mean you would have to have a hell of a lot of "spare" housing to deal with this issue.

I know I have heard from time to time of projects to create really rugged remote aboriginal housing that needs virtually no maintenance, as the care and maintenance of the housing is a very big issue. However, this does nothing to address the issue of abandonment. I remember suggesting to my (lefty) brother that maybe the solution would be a very sophisticated style of tent (with a portable solid floor?) that could be moved off the spot where someone had died. That I would suggest that they live in something less than solid house dismayed him. But honestly, some really creative solutions to the housing issue are needed, aren't they?

(Of course, how to stop tents catching alight if a fire is lit inside is another issue. But I think there must be a model of temporary housing from some indiginous community somewhere in the world that could be adapted.)