From community housing to public housing in Northern Territory remote Aboriginal communities: the policy context

From community housing to public housing in Northern Territory remote Aboriginal communities: the policy context Report

DKCRC Working Paper

  • Author(s): Porter, R
  • Published: 2009
  • Publisher: Desert Knowledge CRC
  • Volume: 44

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Abstract: This working paper is part of research for Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) Core Project (CP) 5 ‘Desert Services that Work: Demand Responsive Services for Desert Settlements’. An aspect of CP5 research in the Northern Territory (NT) is ‘the implementation of new NT models of housing tenancy and asset management and their interface with tenant demand’.1 Field research is being conducted in two Aboriginal communities (Lajamanu and Ali Curung) to explore the fit of the NT Government’s remote public housing model with capacities and conditions in the two communities. This working paper2 examines the context and motivations for the policy change, from a community rental housing model in 73 remote Aboriginal communities of 100 people or more3, to a public housing model whereby construction and upgrades of housing stock, asset maintenance, repairs and maintenance, and tenancy management will all be under the control of Territory Housing, the NT Government’s housing agency4. This ‘mainstreaming’ of Aboriginal-controlled community housing is a significant change of policy direction in at least two respects. First, prior to 2008 all Aboriginal-specific housing funds in the NT were channelled into housing stock that was managed by Indigenous Community Housing Organisations (ICHOs). A stock of approximately 6000 housing units housed 63 per cent of NT Aboriginal adults (ABS 2008) in remote conditions. The NT Government chose not to put any housing funds into State Owned and Managed Indigenous Housing (SOMIH). The ICHOs managed a higher number of dwellings than Territory Housing’s approximately 5392 public housing units located in the main centres of the NT (CoA 2007, p. 72). Second, the Housing Minister’s Building a better future: Indigenous housing to 2010 (BBF) document recognised the difficulties of housing provision in remote communities and advocated ‘a sustainable and active Aboriginal community housing sector acting in partnership with governments’ (HMAC Standing Committee on Indigenous Housing 2001). The BBF community-housing platform has never been repudiated. The policy change from a community to a public housing model occurred without public debate or Aboriginal consultation and without an evidence base that government housing agencies can do a better job of providing remote Aboriginal housing.

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Suggested Citation
Porter, R, 2009, From community housing to public housing in Northern Territory remote Aboriginal communities: the policy context, Volume:44, Report, viewed 19 March 2025, https://www.nintione.com.au/?p=4808.

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