Specialised disability access in 78 public housing units will be a first in the Northern Territory

Nightcliff’s new public housing complex includes innovative features unique to the Northern Territory and they’ll benefit our most vulnerable residents.

Nightcliff’s new 78-unit public housing complex will be fitted out with accessibility features not seen in the Territory before.

This includes an emergency ramp exit in case of fire, one the builders believe is the first of its kind in the NT.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said one of the three towers, which will house up to 18 residents, was designed with people with a disability in mind.

She said this was “innovative in itself”.

“It’s one of the first projects in the Territory where we have put all that access into an apartment building — this allows them to live in a tower and some people prefer living in an apartment complex,” Ms Fyles said.

Natasha Fyles speaks to media outside the Nightcliff public housing units. Picture: Bethany Griffiths

“Even the little details have been delivered by Territorians with Helping People Achieve, a Darwin-based disability enterprise manufacturing the tables and chairs that will be installed in communal areas”

The buildings are in the John Stokes Square Precinct in the centre of Nightcliff.

The Precinct also houses the controversial Nightcliff Police Station.

The NT Government will work with a community housing provider and yet-to-be chosen non-government organisation to move tenants into the units.

The new public housing units are fully accessible for Territorians with a disability. Picture: Bethany Griffiths

That is expected to happen in the coming months.

The tenants will come from the Territory Housing priority list, encompassing people with disabilities and elderly residents.

“This is an exciting project that has changed the face of this area,” Ms Fyles said.

She said the space was formerly home to 75 public housing units.

“The old ones was a outdated public housing that has become a bit of a hotspot for anti-social behaviour,” Ms Fyles said.

The units were built by local company Greenspace, which hired 140 new construction crew to complete it.

Initial challenges in the build included lockdowns, labour shortages and the cost increase of materials.