GIVEN the Northern Territory government’s penchant for reinforcing that there is a major public housing shortage in Katherine, it defies logic that a dilapidated, blackened reminder of the fact remains abandoned on Power Crescent.
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The unit complex, which was written off by the Department of Housing as being “beyond economic repair” in 2012, has been the target of squatters, vandals and arsonists in the three years since, yet it has remained untouched while dozens of Katherinites cry out for public housing.
Worse still, the vacant property has ostensibly cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars or more in rates and emergency services call-out fees during this period – money that could have been either injected directly back into public housing or used to hire a D10 to level the eyesore.
In 2015, Housing Minister Bess Price said “safe, secure and affordable housing is fundamental to the well-being of Territorians” when the government opened its public housing strategy for consultation and community input.
According to Mrs Price, one of the key aims of the strategy is to “improve the way we do things in the housing system”.
That approach, however noble, tends to contradict how the government has handled what has become an embarrassment to both the aesthetic of Katherine and its public housing situation.
How many blazes will it take for the government to actually get off its hands and take decisive action on the property?
Would it prefer to sit back and refuse to acknowledge the existence of the charred elephant in the room until a squatter is seriously injured, a juvenile arsonist burns to death or the buildings simply collapse after another fire renders them structurally unsound?
In its current state, the property is doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the town’s public housing crisis.
There should be 12 new houses built in Katherine East for senior residents by the end of the 2015-16 financial year and, while it represents a win for the community, it also represents the first serious public housing investment in town since 1989.
With public housing shaping up to be a hotly-debated topic in the lead-up to the Territory election later this year, another delay by the government in deciding the fate of the Power Crescent property could light a fire under impatient voters.
