NT govt to tackle housing crisis

The Northern Territory government has promised to make buying and renting housing
more affordable under a new plan to help Territorians.
Chief Minister Paul Henderson, announcing the plan on Wednesday, said it was "the
most comprehensive overhaul of housing in Territory history".
"We have got an affordability crisis in the Northern Territory in rental and also
for purchasing," he told reporters.
"This is about providing a third way, a government step into the market where there
has been market failure.
"This initiative will deliver more land, put more new properties on the market and
reform public housing."
Last October it was reported that some Territorians had been forced to live in sheds
while low income families were facing accommodation stress not seen since Cyclone
Tracy in 1974.
A study by Australian Property Monitors earlier this year found Darwin was the most
expensive capital city in Australia for renters, who paid a weekly median rent of
$500 for a house.
Renters in Sydney paid $450 while houses in Melbourne and Brisbane cost about $350 a
week.
Mr Henderson said the housing initiative, announced in Darwin, was "a new and
different approach" designed to free up land, and provide new places to buy and
rent.
The way in which public housing is delivered will also be reviewed.
The announcement follows revelations this week that some housing commission
residents are living in "hell on earth".
Locals from the The Narrows, on the fringes of Darwin's CBD, said their units were
awash with drunken violence and people were forced to stash weapons next to their
doors to protect themselves from intruders.
One single mother said she was under siege every night as drunk men tried to kick
down the door.
"During the day it's all right," said the mother of four.
"But once the sun goes down everyone comes out, screaming, yelling and fighting...
"They come around looking for single women and I'm a single mother. I'm inside
shaking.... (the children) cling to me, follow me to the bathroom."
Retired screenwriter Fred Burrows - who described the complex as "hell on earth" -
said there was drinking and fighting every night.
NT Housing Minister Rob Knight said by knocking down the old stocks of public
housing - and building new homes dispersed in small pockets through regular suburbs
- crime would be reduced.
"By having less intensive public housing ... you don't get the types of trouble that
you typically get," he said.
"In certain suburbs when you see a lot more public housing close together, you get a
lot more trouble.
"We have other suburbs where it is salt and peppered through, it has been successful."