This paper is interested in housing policy as simultaneously enacting and enforcing economic, political and moral objectives, processes and beings. Using examples from Indigenous and shared equity housing research, the paper explores how ongoing and emerging housing policy and policy discourses are deeply infused with perceptions and expectations of acceptable citizen behaviour, acting as systems of surveillance and discipline on the part of a still-colonial and capitalocentric state. The paper will explore how these two examples highlight the ostensibly ‘private’ phenomenon of home as a nexus of diverse, and possibly divergent, agendas amongst various stakeholders. These reflect ongoing political and ideological tensions, the fundamental nature of which can emerge at times in very real and critical impacts on individuals’ and communities’ sense of stability, autonomy and dignity. The paper will reflect on this to suggest ways forward or critical areas of inquiry and intervention.