There are multiple problems with remote area housing, but I’ll give you an example from my life.
When my husband took his family(myself and 4 children) back to his family community in remote Kimberley, the only housing offered to us was an old, derelict, tiny native welfare house that was in disgusting condition and had been refused by everyone else.
My husband and I totally renovated this house, with many hours of hard labour, supplies scrounged from rubbish dumps and a small amount of our cash for things like a new toilet, paint and concrete.
We ended up with the best house in the community.
My husband offered to teach the men basic home maintenance and I offered to teach the women how to grow fruit and vegetables. We had a huge veggie garden with many fruit trees around the yard.
No one was interested. They preferred to cram into relatives houses when theirs became uninhabitable and under no circumstances would anyone pay for repairs to damages caused by occupants. Another cause of overcrowding is when the power bill doesn’t get paid so when the power gets cut off people just move in with someone else until they can get round to paying the bill, which could take weeks to years.
The only thing that is going to change this mind set is to enforce responsibility onto people. Make them pay market price rent, make them pay for all repairs beyond normal wear and tear and evict those who overcrowd their house to the extent it becomes a health hazard.
This will require a huge cultural change but if they want European style housing they need to adopt European housing habits.

G'day IS MISE...Indeed we have my friend. I recall mentioning before, when I was a relieving sergeant in the bush, you'd have to attend a job at some small govt. built housing settlement, for indigenous folk. Generally to sort out some minor blue, usually associated with the excessive consumption of alcohol, and/or domestic violence.

Invariably many of these little cottages have been vandalised by the occupants. Not through any criminal intent, other than perhaps excessive consumption of alcohol, but certainly not any specific criminal malice, more like some 'innocent' intent. A couple of my constables returned this day, with the truck full (5) of inebriated black men. As a rule you don't arrest blacks at their humpy's unless they're violent or the crime's serious etc etc. These blokes in their wisdom decided to build an open fire inside their Kitchen occasioning substantial damage to flooring and cupboards etc.

The funny side of it being; they constructed a proper fireplace, using a few stones, and a piece of waste corrugated iron sheeting, and couldn't understand why my two blokes pinched 'em for it? I laughed about the incident, often during the retelling of if it, trouble was, it was Taxpayers money that built the little cottages. When cleaned up the damage was relatively minimal requiring a bit of sanding and vanish, mainly to the floorboards, and the paint and/or adhesive covering on the cupboard doors. Even the SM had trouble suppressing a grin, when one of my blokes was giving his evidence in chief. Courts in the bush do have a sense of humour.

The poor 'ol Beak had to try even harder to hide his mirth, when one of the offenders remonstrated with him, when asked why he wanted a fire in the kitchen, he replied; "...to cook their dinner of course, that's the reason of a kitchen, in'n't Boss..."?

Nana
your experience and reasoning is a breath of fresh air. If only the know it all 'elites' would listen to you. Unfortunately they know the truth but are stuck in a flawed destructive narrative which protects their jobs.

Perhaps the houses we build for aborigines are the wrong design. Perhaps we should supply a good supply of bush timber, & bark, & leave it at that. My experience in Rabaul would indicate this.

Many of the locals in PNG had become well off enough to build a "white man" house. These if well designed for the tropics can be quite good, but if a typical 60s style Melbourne fibro box is built, they are truly horrible up there.

I got to know some locals very well, & would be invited for a meal. You would be received & entertained in a strangely bare house. I found this strange, as local village houses are usually quite cluttered.

Ultimately I learnt that most locals did not like their prestigious "white mans" house, A built a much more comfortable local style house of thatch & coconut fond behind the main house, living in it by preference other than to entertain.

Many plantation main house were a blend of local & imported materials. If they had a tin roof, to catch rain water, they would have a thatch roof below & clear of the tin, with an air gap for ventilation & coolness.

Many walls were coconut fond matting awnings to be lowered to keep rain out, & shade cloth or mosquito mesh from waist height up.

Obviously many PNG locals are smarter than us.

Hasbeen, sorry but the experience doesn’t translate across the Torres Straight. All the aboriginal people I know, from remote full bloods to town dwelling middle class, want European style housing with as many air conditioners as can be squeezed in.
I actually find the passion for air conditioning quite strange in the old people. Years ago, before remote people got access to air cons, the old people would prefer to be outside sleeping on a mattress or blanket under the stars but the accessibility to modern technology has changed everything. Now everyone locks themselves in their houses with air cons blasting and videos/tv playing non stop and residents fixated by mobile phones.
We have long passed the stage of thinking aboriginal people will be content with anything less than everyone else has.

More importantly, why are we encouraging anyone to live jobless or more importantly in places where finding a job is next to impossible in the first place. Surely there is a better use for our tax dollars. More importantly, how would a white family go if they tried to start a remote community on the tax payers purse. By all means call me racist, but hey,where am I wrong?