Both state owned and managed Indigenous housing organisations (SOMIH) and Indigenous community housing organisations (ICHOS) experience operating deficits greater than those of mainstream public housing agencies according to John Hall and Mike Berry. This deficit is due to poor quality and high maintenance housing stock, low rental streams, poor dwelling maintenance, poor management practices, and remote locations.

Some of the main findings from this research are: a strong contrast between the recurrent and capital situations of SOMIHs compared with ICHOs; SOMIHs are in a reasonable financial situation and the dwelling backlog appears not to be significant and jurisdictions have programs in place to address this; ICHOs have asset problems due, in part, to low revenue (and no recurrent grants) and how maintenance is spent; variations in capital and recurrent position of ICHOs due to geographic location (especially for remote and very remote areas)