The NT's peak Aboriginal housing body and the opposition have criticised planned public housing reforms by the CLP government, arguing they will "disproportionately and overwhelmingly" target Aboriginal people.

This week the government announced its plan to recoup $39 million in rent arrears from public housing tenants as well as fast-track evictions for people who engage in antisocial behaviour.

In Parliament on Thursday, Housing Minister Steve Edgington said the CLP government would introduce several reforms to make tenants accountable.

"Antisocial behaviour and unpaid rent won't be tolerated," he said. "The time for excuses and rolling out the red carpet for repeat offenders is over."

The government says there are 1,422 tenancies across the full urban NT public housing portfolio, which have accumulated debts of over $10,000; the highest debt is $40,000.

"The CLP government is fully aware that antisocial behaviour and serious incidents of crime in public housing have risen to an unacceptable level," Mr Edgington said.

The NT currently has a public housing waitlist of almost 6,000 people, with a homelessness rate 12 times the national average.

Aboriginal Housing NT (AHNT) says the new reforms by the government will only increase homelessness levels and run counter to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap targets to reduce homelessness and overcrowding.

AHNT chief executive, Leeanne Caton, said by both fast-tracking evictions and increasing the powers of Public Housing Safety Officers (PHSOs), the NT will see "Aboriginal people increasingly targeted and criminalised".

An AHNT spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday: "The proposed reforms of stricter policies and increased evictions announced by the Minister today will only criminalise and marginalise Aboriginal tenants further. The proposed reforms do little to support and sustain complex tenancies nor address the poor condition and long-term neglect of NT remote public housing."

The spokesperson said there had been "zero consultation" with the peak body about the impact of the reforms and called on the government to "engage meaningfully" with the sector to ensure evidence-based decisions.

The new CLP government has seemed unwilling to budge on many of its decisions, even in the face of overwhelming evidence from experts. These include the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility to 10 and the recently introduced Coordinator Bill.

Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said the planned reforms were "about punitive approaches, rather than real engagement".

She argued the proposed changes showed the government doesn't listen to the "decades and decades of research around the connection between homelessness and crime".

Ms Uibo, the first female Indigenous leader of a major party in Australia, said the policy would disproportionately impact First Nations people in public housing.

"The CLP government is now going to be implementing a policy that will create more circumstances for homelessness here in the Northern Territory, and also what we believe are more pathways to crime on our streets," she said.

"People who are struggling with their housing tenancy also need to be supported with intensive case management."

AHNT said the changes complemented "other racially discriminatory reforms" introduced in February 2023 through the NT Government's Remote Rent Framework, which has seen the public housing model shift from an income-based arrangement to a $70 per-bedroom model.

The NT is the only jurisdiction in the country with this arrangement.

"It is widely accepted across every jurisdiction nationally, that public housing rents should not exceed 25 per cent of a household's income to avoid forcing households into entrenched poverty and hardship," the AHNT spokesperson said.

Whilst one- and two-bedroom households could "perhaps manage" under the 25 per cent threshold, AHNT said, the increase for three- and four-bedroom dwellings - largely comprised of Aboriginal Territorians and/or low-income earners, and the majority type in the NT - was "staggering".

"Especially when considered in the context of the current already high cost of living in the NT," the spokesperson said.

They said there was no modelling on the impacts of the policy before it was rolled out, nor any "examination of the broader cost of living impacts on remote Aboriginal families".

"Despite assurances from the NT Government that the increases in rent rates would not have a detrimental impact on Aboriginal people's cost of living and that the increase is moderate, analysis of the available data shows an increase of the proposed amounts has translated to a substantial increase, making public housing rent largely unaffordable," AHNT said.