Overcrowding the key to Indigenous disadvantage: NT Shelter
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NT Shelter says new homes will improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians. (AAP: Karen Michelmore)
The Northern Territory's peak housing group says easing overcrowding in remote communities should be governments' first priority in improving outcomes for Aboriginal people.
A Productivity Commission report released this week shows the gap of Indigenous disadvantage has widened and living conditions in some areas are getting worse.
NT Shelter executive officer Toni Vine-Bromley says overcrowding is a key issue.
"Overcrowding creates conflict and family dysfunction and all those kind of problems," she said.
"It also impacts on people's health, their ability to study or get an education, or get food in the fridge and all those things that are really what you would just normally take for granted."
The Federal and Territory governments will spend $672 million on a five-year program to build new houses and maintain existing properties.
Ms Vine-Bromley says construction needs to start now on building the homes.
"There are no new houses on the ground as yet in any Indigenous community," she said.
"Some communities don't know how many new houses they're going to get, in some communities the upgrades are starting to happen but those new houses that are out of that Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program still haven't been delivered on the ground and nobody has moved into a new house."
The NT Government says more than 80 new homes have been built in various Aboriginal communities since the intervention was rolled out in 2007.
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