Four public housing residents in Papunya, 250km northwest of Alice Springs, are taking legal action in the Federal Court against the Northern Territory government for failing to provide safe housing.
Candy Nelson, Ashley Robertson, Stanley Roberts and Nereda Roberts, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre, are leading the legal action on behalf of the Papunya community of about 300 people.
The centre said decades of government neglect of public housing, combined with rising temperatures, had left many remote NT communities facing dual heat and housing crises.
In Papunya, temperatures regularly exceed 40C for extended periods, yet most houses lack basic protections like adequate insulation, shading, and air conditioning.
"This is the first case in Australia seeking to ensure that a government landlord provides public housing that protects residents from extreme heat caused by the climate crisis," the centre said in a statement.
If successful, the case would compel the NT government to fix dangerously hot homes in communities like Papunya and could pave the way for similar cases in other jurisdictions.
Mr Robertson, one of the litigants, said most houses in Papunya were built in the 1980s and 1990s and were now run down and not fit for the summers of the 2020s.
"Climate change means when it gets hot, it's really hot," he said in a statement.
"People have to sleep outside. It's hard on the kids and old people."
Garrard Anderson, a Papunya community leader, said the NT government hadn't listened to Aboriginal communities on safe housing.
"We're fighting for the next generation who deserve to live On Country in housing that is safe, long-lasting, and fit for the climate here in Papunya."
Law centre senior lawyer Jack McLean said the NT government was failing families, many of whom lived in houses that turned into ovens in the summer, making them thermally unsafe.
"Public housing is just like any other rental, the only difference is the landlord is the government," he told AAP.
Public housing tenancy agreements were governed by the same law that governed all tenancies across the NT, with landlords obliged to provide habitable residences, Mr McLean said.
The litigation aims to force the NT government to live up to its tenancy agreement obligations and abide by federal consumer law to provide a house that's fit for use as a home.
Families in Papunya reported paying as much a $1000 a month on power in a bid to keep their energy-inefficient homes cool, Mr McLean said.
Those who could not pay had their power cut off, he said.
