State owned and managed Indigenous housing explained Demographic Concept

Abbreviated as SOMIH; referenced by 2 other explainers

State owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH) is social housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households. A state or territory housing authority owns the homes and runs them. Only a household with at least one Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander member can live in one.

Where it runs

SOMIH runs in five places. They are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Victoria, Western Australia and the ACT have none. Victoria gave its SOMIH homes to Aboriginal Housing Victoria in 2010. So they now count as Indigenous community housing.

At 30 June 2025 there were 17,163 SOMIH homes in Australia. That is about 4 in every 100 social housing homes. Since 2017 the Northern Territory's remote public housing has been counted as SOMIH. So the count rose a lot that year.

How it compares with other programs

• Public housing is also run by a housing authority. It is open to all who meet its rules.
• Community housing is run by a not-for-profit group.
• Indigenous community housing is run by community groups that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead.

Sources

• Social housing dwellings, AIHW. Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
• SOMIH data, 2010 to 2011: quality statement, AIHW.

How Place Forecast Uses This

Place Forecast counts SOMIH homes together with public housing, since a housing authority lets both. They appear as one group, Public housing and SOMIH, in social housing.