A politics of care in urban public housing: housing precarity amongst Yolŋu renal patients in Darwin

Abstract

People with chronic diseases are likely to require some form of domestic care, however their care needs acquire low visibility in housing policy frameworks. Amongst Yol˛u (Indigenous Australians from northeast Arnhem Land), high rates of kidney disease reinforce needs for housing and care. I consider how access to housing shapes relations and practices of care in the families of Yol˛u renal patients in Darwin, Australia; and how Yol˛u relations and practices of care are implicated in housing policy. Through an ethnographic case study approach, I show that in Yol˛u families, practices of extending shelter to kin are care practices fundamental to the performance of domestic labour. I argue that while housing policy frameworks rely on familial relations and practices of care to reduce rough sleeping and achieve other policy objectives, Yol˛u relations and practices of care are also marginalised through the governance of public housing. The politics of care that play out in their places of residence reproduce housing precarity.

Caring Housing Futures: A Radical Care Framework for Understanding Rent Control Politics in Seattle, USA

“…This example positions landlords, the state, and housing policy as possibly uncaring actors. Tenants are addressing this care gap by caring with one another through mutual care relationships, out of necessity and in response to a social policy failure (Puszka 2022; Thompson 2021). Moreover, this overarching call to action for current Seattle rent control movements of “We deserve rent control” emphasises a collective and a focus on advocating for communities (Be:Seattle Organizing 2019).…”