The statistics provided by NT Shelter are chilling. The rate of homelessness in the Northern Territory is 12 times the national average. Six per cent of all Territorians are experiencing homelessness. Eighty-one per cent of homelessness in the NT is due to overcrowding. Twenty per cent of Aboriginal people in the NT are homeless. More than 16 per cent of Territorians under 16 are homeless. The NT has 13 times the national rate of people sleeping rough.
Homelessness is a burden, not just on the homeless person but on the wider community. There is an 'opportunity cost' implicit in homelessness. The concept of opportunity cost is the cost of doing nothing and letting things go on as they are. What would the whole community gain if say half the existing number of homeless people were employed and paying rent? The entire economy benefits by getting people housed and employed. By not addressing homelessness the whole economy and community suffers.
John Kennedy coached the Hawthorn Hawks AFL club from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. He was famous for his commitment to fitness and hardness at the ball — and his oratory. Perhaps his most famous contribution to the game was his comment at three quarter time of the 1975 Grand Final against the rampant North Melbourne Kangaroos, coached by Ron Barassi. When addressing players who hadn't performed well till to that point, he shouted: 'At least do something! Do! Don't think, don't hope, do! At least you can come off and say "I did this, I shepherded, I played on. At least I did something."'
It's not just 'long grassers' or 'river campers' — the Aboriginal people from remote communities camping 'rough' in Darwin and Alice Springs respectively. They are the visible marker of a deeply entrenched problem.
Long grassers and river campers have a place they call home back in remote parts of the Territory but their homes are not liveable. The recent class action by the residents of community housing at Ltyentye Apurte/Santa Teresa, 80km south-east of Alice, demonstrates that.
The problem is under-resourcing across the Territory. Agencies like Yilli Reung and Tangentyere in Darwin and Alice Springs and the housing associations in remote communities are working at the coal face with energy and initiative. The NT government has committed $10 billion to addressing the problem. But ready solutions do not present themselves automatically.
The Northern Territory branch of the Community and Public Sector Union has recommended to the Gunner Labor government to consider a strategy that was outlined at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) sponsored conference in Darwin in August 2019. A presentation by Samantha Evans explained overseas models of shared equity. The examples she offered indicated a role for governments, philanthropy and private for-profit investment. In the Australian setting, and in the Northern Territory particularly, the role of Aboriginal and other community-based housing providers needs to be factored in.
"The big question is how are the insights and creative knowledge of institutions like the AHURI to be effectively and permanently recruited and inserted into decision making about public housing funding?"
The overseas examples offer innovative possibilities. They deserve consideration. They require deeper, more extensive thought.
In the NT we need buy in. We will need more than the existing players — governments and Vinnies, Salvos, Anglicare, the Aboriginal housing bodies and town camp associations. Success in addressing the overcrowding, particularly in remote and town camp Aboriginal housing, will depend upon wider partnerships between governments, Aboriginal agencies, not for profits, business, philanthropy, lending institutions, entrepreneurs and ordinary people.
The challenge is in recruitment — interestingly the same issue that brings success to AFL teams. They know it and allocate personnel resources and spend much time and effort on 'building their list'. To stay with the AFL analogy and to again quote Kennedy, what is clear is that we have to do something! And we have to do it as a team committed to a goal to end homelessness.
The big question is how are the insights and creative knowledge of institutions like the AHURI to be effectively and permanently recruited and inserted into decision making about public housing funding?
We need a Marlion Pickett injection! An investment in a full-time Northern Territory housing think tank comprising representatives of both Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments, Aboriginal agencies, not for profits, business, philanthropy, lending institutions, entrepreneurs and ordinary people, staffed by a small highly qualified secretariat would appear to provide a way forward.
We have to do something!
Mike Bowden has worked as a teacher and community worker in Alice Springs and Aboriginal communities in the Top End. He is receiving a theology PhD from the University of Divinity in Adelaide in 6 December 2019, for this thesis exploring Aboriginal and Catholic spirituality, 'Searching Altyerre to Reveal the Cosmic Christ'.