Fixing houses for better health (FHBH)
Fixing Houses for Better Health (FHBH)
Interactive FHBH data
FHBH feedback
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- Is the explanation about the FHBH data easy to understand?
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- Do you have any suggestions for improving the FHBH web pages or data cubes?
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) funds the FHBH program to improve the houses and household conditions in rural and remote Indigenous communities across Australia.
The Housing for Health approach used in the FHBH program supports the idea that a householder's ability to practice specific healthy living practices (HLP) is dependent upon the functionality of their house, in particular what is called 'health hardware'. This includes items such as safe electricity and water supply, toilets, showers, washing areas and food preparation areas.
The Housing for Health method conducts a survey and fix on each house to determine whether the health hardware and other features of that house are functioning (FHBH Survey Fix 1). The non-functioning elements of the house are then fixed, either on the spot or shortly after the initial survey and over a six to 12 month period before the Second Survey fix. Houses are then surveyed again (FHBH Survey Fix 2) to assess the functioning of all items and urgent items are fixed.
The FHBH program is conducted by Healthabitat Pty Ltd in Indigenous communities in Australia. For each community which participated in the program, all accessible dwellings in the community were surveyed and fixed. The program collected a large amount of detailed information on the functionality of houses before (at Survey Fix 1) and after repairs were completed (Survey Fix 2). These data have been used to calculate a score for each dwelling between 0% and 100% okay for each of the 36 HLPs. Eleven of the 36 HLP have been designated as critical. Dwellings can only be considered safe and functioning if they score 100% okay for all the Critical HLPs. For more details on the HLPs click here.
The FHBH program followed the Housing for Health safety and health principles detailed in the National Indigenous Housing Guide 3rd Edition. This guide provides practical advice to assist in the delivery of healthy housing to Indigenous people.
FHBH data
The communities and dwellings included in the FHBH database are NOT a random sample of dwellings or communities. Communities are either selected or request to participate in the program. The FHBH data are therefore NOT representative of Indigenous community housing nationally or in a particular region.
The number of dwellings captured in FHBH Survey Fix 1 and 2 differs slightly. Therefore to compare FHBH Survey Fix 1 and 2 results, dwellings which were not surveyed twice were excluded. However, to allow analysis of the total number of dwellings surveyed in both FHBH Survey Fix 1 and 2, these data have been presented in separate data cubes. Data from these latter two cubes should not be compared.
The data cubes include data from both the FHBH program which is funded by FaHCSIA and data from other Housing for Health programs which are funded by other organisations.