Rent pause for flooded Aboriginal communities: ‘We’re talking about the most disadvantaged people in the Territory’ | Northern Territory
The Northern Territory government will freeze rent payments for public housing tenants affected by historic floods across the Big Rivers region.
Monsoonal rainfall has inundated remote Aboriginal communities in the region for the past two weeks. The Daly River region was hit the hardest on Wednesday; The Dorisvale Pass reached 23.93 meters at 13.30, the highest level ever recorded. The nearby Katherine River reached 19.2 meters last Saturday, its highest level since the 1998 floods.
The NT’s housing department confirmed the emergency rent pause on Friday, saying flood-affected public housing tenants do not need to apply to receive the reprieve.
“The rent pause will automatically apply to eligible public housing tenants,” a ministry spokesperson said. “As the response continues, we continue to investigate and assess entry conditions into communities, then scope properties for security.”
The spokesperson said the department “remains focused on supporting displaced residents, assessing damage as quickly as possible, and assisting affected public housing tenants.”
Aboriginal Housing NT chief executive Leeanne Caton said pausing rent payments until people could return to their safe homes, clean them up and make them livable was a “show of good faith”.
“We’re talking about the most disadvantaged people in the region — or possibly this country — who are technically homeless because they’ve been evicted from their communities,” he said.
“These people are already in poverty and are living and camping as best they can in regional centres.
Caton added: “The point here is that these people are people and they should be treated as such. With respect, and the government should do what it can to assist them in any way possible. Just because they live in a remote community doesn’t mean they don’t deserve respect.”
The announcement comes three days after the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) wrote to the federal and NT governments criticizing the “patch response” to support communities outside Katherine.
As of Wednesday, people living outside the Katherine local government area were unable to access emergency flood relief payments, prompting criticism from many Aboriginal peak bodies.
NAAJA CEO Ben Grimes said remote Aboriginal communities were home to some of the “most vulnerable people” in the region, many of whom were now displaced.
“Many of our clients live in social housing and low-lying areas, which are most affected by floodwaters. Some households have lost everything. The system is not designed to support them quickly in a crisis, making recovery slower and more painful than it needs to be,” he said.
Grimes called for a rent freeze for social housing tenants in flood-affected areas and a refund of rent paid since March 6. He also expressed concern that people from the home communities of Emu Point, Woodycupidiya and Uminyuluk were experiencing food shortages.
A NT government spokesman said food safety concerns were “being addressed appropriately”. They also said that due to multiple emergencies occurring “simultaneously”, flood relief payments were made available on “different timelines”, which affected when certain relief measures could be activated.
Food aid payments for affected areas, including Roper Bay, West Daly, Victoria Daly, Coomalie, Belyuen, Wagait, West Arnhem, Litchfield, Darwin, Palmerston and greater Darwin areas, were added to joint state area emergency emergency funding arrangements on Thursday.
Residents of the remote communities of Naiyu (Daly River) and Palumpa were evacuated to the Darwin show grounds with no timeline for when they could return home. Meanwhile, Kakadu is completely disconnected.
Shadow minister for housing Dheran Young said the NT government must support the rebuilding of communities when the waters recede.
“This approach is important because overcrowding is already a serious problem in many remote communities with real consequences for health, safety and well-being, and improvement efforts should reduce this pressure rather than making the situation worse,” he said.
A federal government spokesman said they were supporting states and territories with the costs of providing relief and recovery assistance through jointly funded disaster recovery fund arrangements, but responsibility for distributing that aid rested with the states.
