The Northern Territory Government must implement safeguards to ensure it meets its human rights obligations and responsibilities, the Human Rights Commission says.
It comes after the Country Liberal Party (CLP) Government was widely criticised for closing the YiSSA short-stay accommodation facility — Darwin's largest homeless shelter — and moving residents 100 kilometres away to Batchelor.
In a letter sent to Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro last week and seen by National Indigenous Times, five human rights Commissioners said they had serious concerns about the potential impact of the move on vulnerable Territorians, noting reports which said the Batchelor site was "not yet ready and fit for purpose".
"We understand that a significant number of YiSSA's previous residents have medical conditions for which they require treatments unavailable in Batchelor," the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Race Discrimination Commissioner, National Children's Commissioner, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, and the Sex Discrimination Commissioner wrote.
"We are concerned at reports that not all medically vulnerable persons have been exempted from the relocation and the risk that this may leave some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability without access to adequate health services."
YiSSA, run by the Yilli Rreung Housing Aboriginal Corporation alongside Mission Australia, housed up to 400 residents, the majority Aboriginal. These included survivors of domestic and family violence and people from remote communities who needed access to life-saving medical treatment, such as kidney dialysis.
The Northern Territory has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, at almost 12 times the national average. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 87 per cent of the Territory's homeless population.
In their letter, the Commissioners said concerns had been raised with them about the "adequacy of services" offered to children in Batchelor who were previously at YiSSA, as well as a lack of disability and NDIS services in the town.
"Likewise, we have heard that women and their children housed at YiSSA due to family and domestic violence may also be negatively affected by this decision," they wrote.
"The right of these women and children to live free from violence may be compromised by the decision to close YiSSA, including in situations where these residents cannot relocate to Batchelor and may now be either at risk, having returned to unsafe living arrangements in Darwin, or have been made homeless."
In a statement, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said a lack of secure housing "becomes a barrier to almost every part of life, from maintaining good health and staying connected to community, to accessing education and employment".
"We are concerned that this decision will leave people who are already facing hardship at greater risk of poor living conditions and further disadvantage," she added.
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Last week, Children and Families Minister Robyn Cahill said some former YiSSA residents had moved back in with family or community, secured transitional accommodation, been approved for public housing, moved into community housing or remained in Darwin.
However, 109 people who were living at the facility when it closed last week remained unaccounted for.
The commissioners noted that Australia has ratified seven core international human rights treaties protecting rights relating to equality, education, health, Indigenous peoples, children, women and people with disabilities. It has also endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
They told Ms Finocchiaro they would "welcome the opportunity to urgently discuss" the actions and safeguards being implemented to ensure the NT Government did not breach its human rights obligations, as well as its obligations under Commonwealth discrimination laws, including the Racial and Disability Discrimination Acts.
"The NT Government has obligations under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap," they wrote. "The lack of consultation in the lead-up to this decision does not appear to align with Priority Reform 1.
"Similarly, given the majority of residents at Batchelor are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, the lack of consultation on the management of the facility and the lack of opportunity for Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to tender for that opportunity does not appear to align with Priority Reform 2."
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The CLP Government announced in July the YiSSA facility would close after it failed to reach an agreement with Ausco, which owns the demountables on the Crown land site.
The federal government offered up to $3.5 million to the NT Government to help purchase the facility from Ausco, with the NT Government contributing another $3 million.
The offer was conditional on the facility being run by Yilli Rreung — a "well-respected and highly effective Aboriginal community-controlled organisation that had been operating the facility for years," according to Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy.
The NT Government rejected the offer, with Ms Cahill indicating the Commonwealth's funding conditions were unacceptable to her government.
In an opinion piece published in National Indigenous Times on Sunday, Senator McCarthy argued that the CLP Government's "cruel decision" would have a "devastating impact" on the lives of people in need.
"When we see more homeless people on our streets, we will know who put them there," she added.
