In two weeks, Gwenda Mace Woodroffe won't have anywhere to live.
For the past six years, the Rembarranga woman from the remote NT community of Beswick has been on the move, carting her possessions between short-stay accommodation services and the overcrowded homes of family members.
"Sometimes I have to sleep in the long grass," Ms Woodroffe said.
Ms Woodroffe, who has a chronic illness and issues with her eyesight after domestic assaults, added her name to Katherine's public housing lottery six years ago to be closer to the hospital.
She hasn't heard anything since.
More than 490 applicants are on a waiting list for a house in the Katherine region alone, according to the NT government.
Last year only 36 applications were processed.
The government, in a joint initiative with Venture Housing, plans to build 16 new social and affordable homes in Katherine.
The government is also due to roll out a $3 million private rental subsidy scheme for eligible key workers on low to medium incomes.
Amid the enormous demand Ms Woodroffe could still be waiting for years.
"I feel angry and frustrated about why it's taking so long," she said.
Years on the streets
At 32 times the national average, Katherine's homelessness rate is one of the highest per capita in Australia, NT Shelter executive officer Peter McMillan says.
He said there had been "historic underinvestment in housing".
"In Katherine, at the present time, there's 494 families on the public housing wait-list alone," Ms McMillan said.
According to the latest government data there are 496 public houses in Katherine, including 47 properties that are referred to as industry housing and 39 houses that have been allocated to community housing providers.
Applicants are sleeping rough, on average, for the better part of a decade while they wait for a permanent and safe roof over their head.
"They need twice the amount of housing than what's currently down there for those people who are earning low incomes or moderate incomes," Mr McMillan said.
Mr McMillan says an uneven share in the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, which splits $1.6 billion among the states and territories every year based on population, has not helped to alleviate the crisis.
"We receive $20 million in the year out of the total allocation … So that's 1.3 per cent of the total amount," he said.
"Now, that's really loose change."
'Tip of the iceberg'
Katherine MLA Jo Hersey has welcomed the 16 new homes but says "more needs to be done and it needs to be done now".
"Sixteen homes is just the tip of the iceberg," she said.
In addition to the $4m investment for the 16 new homes, Territory Families and Urban Housing Minister Kate Worden said the government had awarded more than 230 stimulus contracts to Katherine businesses for the upgrade of public housing assets.
"One of my main priorities is to address public housing pressures in our urban centres [by] supporting the growth and development of the community housing sector," she said.
"This strategy will include a pipeline of strategic housing management, land packages and other redevelopment opportunities that aim to incentivise and attract non-government investment by community housing providers."
Nowhere to go
Eli Sherman is the coordinator at the Katherine Salvation Army Hub, which runs a drop-in service providing food, showers and washing machines to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
After collecting data for the past year, he says a short-stay accommodation service in Katherine is critical.
"People staying [in Katherine] to visit friends and family, or visit the hospital from communities where there are less services, could be staying anywhere from three days to 12 months," Mr Sherman said.
"But, once again, they've got nowhere to stay, which then puts additional pressure on the individuals who actually do have homes in Katherine and puts them at risk of losing those homes.
