Changes to rental arrangements in remote communities and town camps across the Northern Territory could further exacerbate social pressures in Alice Springs, an Indigenous support group says.
But the Territory government says the scheme is fair, consistent and affordable, includes a safety net and replaces an out-of-date system.
From next week the NT government will charge rent for public housing based on the number of bedrooms.
The scheme will apply throughout remote communities, in the Alice Springs town camps and in Tennant Creek community living areas.
Rents will be set at $70 per bedroom, per week but capped at $280 a week. For tenants identified at risk of rental stress, a safety net can also apply, limiting rent to 25 per cent of total household income.
The NT government believes the changes will make paying rent easier to understand and cut rental debt, with outstanding rent before December 11, 2021 to be waived.
Housing and Homelands Minister Selena Uibo said the framework provided clarity on rent payable to avoid debt and ensured a robust public housing system for the future.
"It provides a standard means for setting rent, reduces the red tape burden and supports sustainable rent collection in remote communities to help fund the cost of improving remote housing in the long term," she said.
"While some tenants will be paying increased rent, this is in line with CPI increases and is the first rental increase in more than a decade. Remote rental levels remain well below urban ones."
But Aboriginal Housing NT chief executive Skye Thompson said the changes would result in two-thirds of tenants being hit with a rent increase and lead to more people heading into Alice Springs looking for a place to live.
"Raising the rents of the most marginalised people in the Northern Territory will only put further pressure on families, especially around central Australia," Ms Thompson said.
"We're concerned that the framework will compound cost-of-living pressures, and could see even more people in remote communities move into towns like Alice Springs."
Ms Thompson said in light of those pressures, the NT government should maintain the current income-based rent model until a new system could be designed.
She said Aboriginal Housing NT was concerned the government was pushing ahead with the change without having properly modelled its impact on tenants and communities.
It also comes after last week's move to restrict alcohol sales in central Australia in a bid to curb surging youth crime in Alice Springs.
The restrictions include a three-month ban on the sale of takeaway alcohol in the region on Mondays and Tuesdays and reduced trading hours on other days, with a limit of one purchase per person each day.
A long-term central Australian alcohol management plan will also be developed.
