Introduction by Croakey: The housing crisis is a top election priority for Northern Territory peak bodies, with calls for the next government to urgently address housing shortages, overcrowding and infrastructure.
While the recent commitment by the NT and Federal Governments for investment in housing in the Territory has been welcomed by NT peak bodies, including Aboriginal Housing NT and NT Shelter, they want to ensure the funding is directed to where it will have the greatest benefit.
Skye Thompson, CEO of Aboriginal Housing NT, outlines calls for action below, including building new housing on homelands, Aboriginal say in design and construction – with genuine opportunity to build for climate and culture – and greater accountabiity from government.
Skye Thompson writes:
The past year has seen significant investment in Aboriginal housing with Federal and Territory Government investments in remote Northern Territory housing.
This NT election will determine its impact.
We are calling for all parties to prioritise rebuilding the Aboriginal community-controlled housing sector and to improving the living conditions of Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal Housing NT (AHNT) believes that for sustainable change to occur, Aboriginal people must be central in decision-making processes.
For a long time, the Northern Territory has been defined by a string of negative statistics. We have the worst rate of homelessness in the country and the highest rate of severe overcrowding (12 and 22 times the national averages respectively). And, hidden in these statistics, is the significant over-representation of Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the NT account for 87 percent of the homeless population and 98 percent of the population living in severely overcrowded dwellings. Many of these dwellings, particularly in remote communities and homelands are in disrepair, lacking safe drinking water, functional cooking and cleaning spaces, and bearing significant structural damages.
The negative impacts of living in these conditions are well documented. It increases the burden of infectious disease, which contributes to chronic illness. Furthermore, it impacts social and emotional wellbeing, child development and education, employment, and family violence.
History of damaging policies
There is no denying that this is a crisis. And it is a direct result of decades of paternalistic, short-sighted policies made by governments on behalf of Aboriginal people.
The NT Emergency Response in 2007, commonly known as ‘‘The Intervention’, saw the compulsory transfer of responsibility for remote housing from Aboriginal organisations to the NT Government. The shift to a public housing system diminished community-control and removed real jobs from the community, all while failing to deliver better housing outcomes for Aboriginal people.
This year, we have seen a shift in government policy.
In March, the Australian and NT Governments announced a 10-year, $4 billion investment in remote housing in the NT. The four land councils and Aboriginal Housing NT – the community-driven peak body for Aboriginal housing in the NT – worked with the governments to influence the federation funding agreement.
The agreement now includes explicit references to housing that is appropriate, climate-resilient, applies health hardware principles, improves disability access, and complies with the National Indigenous Housing Guide.
It moves away from reactive maintenance programs to an expanded Remote Property Management Program that delivers responsive, cyclical and planned repairs and maintenance, recognising that emergency repairs cost 75 percent more than planned maintenance activities, while responsive activities cost 50 percent more than planned.
What happens next will shape the future of housing in the NT.
This election will define the future of housing in the Territory. We are asking all parties to act to address the existing crisis that is disproportionately affecting Indigenous Australians.
Calls for genuine action
We call for:
1. Building new housing on homelands and more investment in repairs and maintenance on existing houses
Homelands are remote areas where Aboriginal people live and have traditional ties.
Since 2007, we have seen very few government funded houses built on homelands, resulting in significant overcrowding. Furthermore, funding for repairs and maintenance has been extremely limited ($40 million a year spread over nearly 400 funded homelands), leaving houses in disrepair.
Over the next three years, we will see a $120 million increase in repairs and maintenance funding from the Federal Government. While this is welcomed, it falls short of adequately rectifying decades of underfunding and currently does not permit new housing builds.
AHNT is calling parties to enable the building of new housing for homelands as a part of the $4 billion funding agreement, and to triple the Homelands Grant Program funding to $120 million a year to ensure upgrades, repairs and maintenance are preventative and cyclical.
2. Aboriginal say in design and construction – with genuine opportunity to build for climate and culture
The NT’s house design guidelines are ill-suited to remote communities, particularly in relation to climate change and overcrowding. Roof ventilation is prohibited, and air conditioning is omitted by default.
Other design failures, include a lack of cultural consideration and a lack of consideration for surges in population. We are calling for more engagement with communities to build homes suited to their context.
3. Improved government accountability in the housing program
Responsibility for the construction, maintenance, and delivery of public housing and homeland services in remote NT is divided between the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics and Territory Families, Housing and Communities (TFHC). As a result, there is unclear accountability for the delivery of adequate services.
AHNT calls for government to give TFHC full accountability for the specification, construction and delivery of urban and remote public housing, and ultimate responsibility for timely and cost-effective repairs and maintenance.
The NT Labor government has committed to bringing housing, new builds and homelessness programs under one roof, in their proposed department ‘Territory Homes’. We await the other parties’ responses.
4. Action to address the rising cost of living
Aboriginal people living in remote NT are unfairly burdened by high costs of living. The shifts to charge public housing rent in remote communities by a room-based model places an extra financial burden on large families if a safety net isn’t applied.
The inflated cost for fresh food, fuel and electricity are other factors increasing cost of living pressure for remote residents. AHNT calls for parties to address these issues by reviewing how we support low-income residents to pay rent and power bills and improving access to affordable food and transport.
5. Enough funding to support the transition to Aboriginal control of Aboriginal housing
Underpinning all these demands is the principle that Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs) should be at the forefront of addressing the housing crisis.
That is why we are calling for more funding to support the transition of Aboriginal housing to Aboriginal control. This includes investing in training opportunities to overcome skill gaps, providing subsidies for tenancy sustainment, committing to undertaking longer contracts with ACCOs to support financial planning and investing more in AHNT to further enable capacity building.
See the Aboriginal Housing NT’s policy position for the NT election here.
More reading on the NT election
Experts call for the end of “tough on crime” electioneering, by Alison Barrett
Next Northern Territory Government must invest in community safety and the community services sector, by Sally Sievers
Why the climate health crisis should be front of mind for the Northern Territory election, by Alison Barrett
Next Northern Territory Government must ensure new housing commitments have solid foundations, by Peter McMillan
A three-point health prescription for the next Northern Territory Government, by Dr Kirsty Neal
Run-down health facilities and inadequate staff housing are undermining vital primary healthcare in Northern Territory, by Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory
See Croakey’s extensive archive of articles on housing and health.