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Speaker 1: Yesterday, the Northern Territory Government announced one hundred and two

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Speaker 1: new homes set to be built in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: They say aimed to help reduce the wait times for

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Speaker 1: social housing and overcrowding. Now we know the Federal government

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Speaker 1: is investing seventy nine million dollars under its Housing Australia

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Speaker 1: Future Fund, with the Northern Territory Government contributing land value

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Speaker 1: at seven point five to two million to support the

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Speaker 1: Round two roll out. Now eighty two homes as I

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Speaker 1: understand it, are going to be built in Darwin and Palmerston,

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Speaker 1: fourteen in Alice Springs and six in Tenant Creek. Now

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Speaker 1: joining us in the studio is NT Shelters CEO Annie Taylor.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Good morning Katie, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Good to have you in the studio. Now one hundred

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Speaker 1: and two new homes. It seems like a good announcement.

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Speaker 1: It is.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's positive, one hundred and two new homes. That's

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Speaker 2: going to make a difference to one hundred and two

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Speaker 2: families who are on that social housing weight list and

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Speaker 2: need somewhere to live. So it's a positive step and

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Speaker 2: it's also positive to see the Northern Territory Government working

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Speaker 2: with community housing providers to deliver that housing. So we

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Speaker 2: really commend the Northern Territory Government on their efforts there. However,

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Speaker 2: we are behind where we need to be. We've got

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Speaker 2: a huge housing crisis here in the Northern Territory, as

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Speaker 2: we do around Australia, but it's significant here. So we

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Speaker 2: need to do a whole lot more to deliver housing

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Speaker 2: and get it on the ground really quickly, not just

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Speaker 2: for people on the social housing waitlist, but also for

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Speaker 2: people who need affordable housing, which those are our renters.

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Speaker 2: It's a huge portion of the population.

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Speaker 1: Well this is the thing. And you know again also

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Speaker 1: one hundred and two new homes is wonderful, that's a

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Speaker 1: great announcement. But over the years we've spoken a lot

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Speaker 1: about the Housing Australia Future Fund and the volume of

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Speaker 1: homes aimed at being delivered under that fund. How many

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Speaker 1: homes do we actually need here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's the estimates really vary. So we've done

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Speaker 2: our own modeling internally and we think in terms of

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Speaker 2: social and affordable homes where we need upwards of about

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Speaker 2: nineteen thousand, So you know, really significant numbers and a

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Speaker 2: field if you kind of break that down and just

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Speaker 2: think about the fact that we want our population to

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Speaker 2: grow here, but then we want to be able to

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Speaker 2: house the population that we currently have. And we have

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Speaker 2: over five thousand people who are on the social housing

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Speaker 2: wait list currently, so that's a lot of applicants who

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Speaker 2: are sitting there for up to ten years in some

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Speaker 2: of our urban centers, who are waiting for social housing.

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Speaker 2: But again, it's not just social housing. I think it's

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Speaker 2: really important for the listeners to understand that we're also

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Speaker 2: talking here about affordable housing, and that's housing that's available

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Speaker 2: to people who are on low income. So that's your

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Speaker 2: people in service sectors, in hospitality, in retail, that's your baristas,

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Speaker 2: your early career tradees who are so important to the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory economy. I mean, I don't know about you,

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Speaker 2: but I love getting my early morning coffee. I think

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Speaker 2: that's so important that we can house the population that

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Speaker 2: we have adequately, and if we don't, we're going to

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Speaker 2: see people leave the Northern Territory. We already hear those.

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Speaker 1: Stories well, I mean, and then when you look at

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Speaker 1: like you spot on in terms of that affordable housing

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Speaker 1: for people, you know, that have moved here, making sure

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Speaker 1: we've got accommodation and housing available for people that are

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Speaker 1: moving here for various roles. But then even when you

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Speaker 1: look at the social housing, I mean I go on

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Speaker 1: occasionally and have a look at the wait times. Goodness me,

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Speaker 1: you know, they are like people are waiting years and

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Speaker 1: years to get into that social housing. It's phenomenal those

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Speaker 1: wait times for all the wrong reasons.

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Speaker 2: Really, it really is. And you know, I think it's

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Speaker 2: really important to think about the fact that that could

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Speaker 2: be really any territory. Yeah, you know, I did the

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Speaker 2: CEO sleepout that Saint Vinnie's run recently, and it was

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Speaker 2: really sobering to sit there and hear about the experiences

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Speaker 2: of people with a lived experience of homelessness in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory and the fact that for a lot of

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Speaker 2: those people, it's not just you know, it's not financial mispeage, man,

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Speaker 2: it's not a mistake that ends those people on the

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Speaker 2: social housing weight list. It could be a significant life

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Speaker 2: event that impacts them, like unfortunately a divorce or the

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Speaker 2: death of a partner that could end them on that

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Speaker 2: social housing weight list. So it's really important that we

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Speaker 2: have enough housing to accommodate all people who are on

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Speaker 2: that social housing weight list.

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Speaker 1: Now talk us through you know, some of the work

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Speaker 1: that you know that we are hoping to see get

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Speaker 1: underway in the Northern Territory when it comes to housing. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Great, So we look, we've got a real opportunity here.

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Speaker 2: It's almost a once in a generation opportunity to capitalize

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Speaker 2: on that Commonwealth investment when it comes to housing and

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Speaker 2: get it to the Northern Territory where it is so, so,

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Speaker 2: so urgently needed. So these one hundred and two houses

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Speaker 2: are part of it and they will definitely help, but

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Speaker 2: we really need to ramp it up to meet the

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Speaker 2: scale of demand that we have committed to in the

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Speaker 2: level of need we have here in the NT. So

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Speaker 2: we've committed previously to delivering one thy two hundred houses

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Speaker 2: under the House Australia Future Fund, so that's by twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty nine, so we're getting there. We've got these one

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Speaker 2: hundred and two and that adds to round one of

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Speaker 2: the Housing Australia Future Fund. But we've still got over

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Speaker 2: a thousand houses we need to deliver in the next

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Speaker 2: four years. So while these homes will help, it doesn't

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Speaker 2: come close, and we still need to keep going. And

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Speaker 2: what we're calling for is an urban housing supply plan.

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Speaker 2: We think that that's what we really need here in

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Speaker 2: the NT because, like I said, we need to leverage

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Speaker 2: that Commonwealth investment. We need it here in the NT,

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Speaker 2: So we need to get it here and we need

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Speaker 2: to keep building.

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Speaker 1: What might that supply plan look like from your perspective.

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Speaker 2: Well, we need to look at what the demand is

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Speaker 2: and what we expect our population to grow to in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory, and we need to look at what

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Speaker 2: is available from the Commonwealth and potentially other sources. When

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Speaker 2: it comes to how we can fund housing, you look

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Speaker 2: into state and you've got superannuation funds who are funding

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Speaker 2: social and affordable housing because it's a good turn on

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Speaker 2: investment for them. So it's about thinking creatively about how

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Speaker 2: we can get housing on the ground.

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Speaker 1: Now. I know recently the Northern Territory government obviously unveiled

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Speaker 1: that five year homelessness strategy backed by two hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty three million dollars from the Northern Territory and federal government.

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Speaker 1: What are some of the key priorities of that strategy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they did so that was launched by Minister Carl

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Speaker 2: last month and it's a five year roadmap to end

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Speaker 2: homelessness in the Northern Territory. It's got a really strong

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Speaker 2: focus on prevention, which is so so important when we

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Speaker 2: look at our homeless population here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people don't realize, but fifty percent of

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Speaker 2: that homeless population are under the age of twenty five.

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Speaker 2: So if we can just think about how we can

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Speaker 2: end or really significantly reduce homelessness for that population, then

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Speaker 2: we're already looking at prevention because young people are more

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Speaker 2: likely to keep re engaging with that homelessness system, so

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Speaker 2: let's prevent it before it keeps arising. It makes good

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Speaker 2: social sense, it makes good economic sense, and I think

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Speaker 2: this strategy look like I said before, it's people are

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Speaker 2: very close to an experience of homelessness, you know, whether

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Speaker 2: that's someone you know here in the territory, because we

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Speaker 2: have almost six percent of our population experiencing homelessness, so

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Speaker 2: it really can happen to a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: I think we spoke about it a lot throughout COVID,

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Speaker 1: and it's sort of became very evident throughout COVID people

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Speaker 1: were going oh wow, you know, like because businesses were closing,

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Speaker 1: jobs were being lost. For a lot of people, it

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Speaker 1: became like a really real scenario that they could be

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Speaker 1: in a situation where they didn't have a home. But

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Speaker 1: over the last couple of years, I guess it's been

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Speaker 1: spoken about a little bit less and less, but the

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Speaker 1: reality of it is, we do have like a huge

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Speaker 1: volume of people that are sort of you know, like

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Speaker 1: working class and struggling in terms of you know, whether

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Speaker 1: they can sort of get from paycheck to paycheck.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, it's precarious for a lot of people.

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Speaker 2: And there was research out from NAB recently that showed

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Speaker 2: that about forty percent of respondents reckon that if they

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Speaker 2: lost their job that day, they're only really a month

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Speaker 2: away from homelessness, which is that's really scary to think about,

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Speaker 2: and I can understand that, But I think that's why

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Speaker 2: we need to recognize that a homelessness strategy like this

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Speaker 2: is important for all Territorians because we want a homelessness

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Speaker 2: system that cannot only prevent that from happening, but if

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Speaker 2: it does happen to any of us, help us get

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Speaker 2: back on our feet as quickly as possible.

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Speaker 1: You were talking before just about young people, and you

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Speaker 1: know that forming such a huge portion of those that

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Speaker 1: are homeless under the age of twenty five g that's tough,

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Speaker 1: like when you're really trying to get on your fees

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Speaker 1: and are they CouchSurfing? Like what are these young people doing?

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Speaker 2: Look, it really depends the majority of living in overcrowded housing.

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Speaker 2: But then you also do get, yes, a lot of

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Speaker 2: people who are CouchSurfing, and that's what makes it actually

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Speaker 2: quite hard to really estimate the true figures. So when

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Speaker 2: I say fifty percent, it's probably a little bit harder,

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Speaker 2: but it's quite hidden because if someone's CouchSurfing, we're not

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Speaker 2: always going to know about it, and the census isn't

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Speaker 2: always going to pick that up, so it's probably quite

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Speaker 2: a bit higher. But then you also, like you also

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Speaker 2: get people who are impacted by domestic family violence, and

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Speaker 2: of course that brings up those homelessness rates here in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory as well, people presenting to homelessness services

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Speaker 2: with an experience of domestic family violence. So you know,

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Speaker 2: that's where this prevention discussion really comes in. How do

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Speaker 2: we prevent that before it happens, and how do we

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Speaker 2: navigate people away from the service system and get them

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Speaker 2: back on their feet.

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Speaker 1: Well, and then I guess when you look more broadly

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Speaker 1: as well at the domestic violence issues we've got in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Even if you've got a family or

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Speaker 1: a you know, a woman wanting to flee or a

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Speaker 1: man wanting to flee a domestic violence situation and really

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Speaker 1: having no options of where they can.

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Speaker 2: Live, Yeah, there's just not sufficient options, you know, whether

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Speaker 2: we're looking here in Darwin or some of our other

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Speaker 2: urban centers. We've got some amazing services here that do

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Speaker 2: incredible work. But look, the strategy is overall positive. It's

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Speaker 2: great that it is under PEA and by a significant investment.

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Speaker 2: I think that's what, you know, we really want to

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Speaker 2: see and what we don't see with a lot of

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Speaker 2: strategies is we've got this strategy now, we've got that

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Speaker 2: investment so so important. So that's hitting the ground. Now,

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Speaker 2: we're going to see more tendancy support programs. We're going

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Speaker 2: to see you know, more programs along those lines that

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Speaker 2: are going to keep people out of home.

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Speaker 1: So you feel like it's a step in the right direction,

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Speaker 1: but we've still got quite a way to go in

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Speaker 1: terms of additional homes at this point.

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Speaker 2: Of course, because you know, how do we prevent homelessness, Well,

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Speaker 2: we need the houses to go along with it. So

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Speaker 2: what's really important is getting a strategy or a supply

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Speaker 2: plan to make sure that we can really map out

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Speaker 2: how many houses we need here in the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: and how we're going to get them on the ground

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Speaker 2: really quickly so that we can adequately house the population

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Speaker 2: we have and the population we expect to have.

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Speaker 1: Well. NT Shelter CEO Annie Taylor, great to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us in

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Speaker 1: the studio.

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Speaker 2: Thank you