HNZ apologises to tenants
Twyford blames ‘organisatonal failure’ rather than individuals for meth testing fiasco
The sheer number of people affected by Housing New Zealand’s zero tolerance approach to meth contamination is “mind-blowing”, the NZ Drug Foundation says.
Executive director Ross Bell said he was shocked by the scale of the problem. It is estimated about 2400 people were evicted from state housing because of meth contamination.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the huge numbers that were affected. That’s mind-blowing... ”
Housing New Zealand (HNZ) has a big job on its hands now to identify those people and provide the appropriate compensation, Bell said.
He said the $2500-$3000 reimbursement per tenancy estimated by Housing New Zealand was far too low.
“If you take into account that the costs to those affected people would have been huge in terms of destruction of their property, having to find a new property, potentially paying market rate because they were banned from social housing,” he said.
Bell called for HNZ chairwoman Adrienne Young-Cooper to resign.
“She was responsible for all of this. The report clearly shows the board failed to be governors. They delegated a lot of these shitty decisions to management and in terms of accountability it needs to extend beyond just an apology.”
A report by HNZ on its previous approach to meth contamination in its houses shows 800 tenants were kicked out of their state houses for meth contamination and 542 were charged nearly $7 million in total for meth contamination between 2013 and 2018. HNZ spent $120m on decontaminating and restoring properties, and demolished 40, while using a meth standard now found to be inaccurate.
HNZ chief executive Andrew McKenzie, who fronted at a press conference along with Housing Minister Phil Twyford and acting HNZ board chairman Vui Mark Gosche, estimated that for each of the 800 tenants evicted, another two people went with them – adding up to around 2400 people evicted.
HNZ has admitted it was wrong and ignorant in its previous approach and gave no regard to natural justice.
It will formally apologise to affected tenants and reimburse them for the costs they incurred.
It is also considering establishing a fund for tenants and their families to access for addiction and rehabilitation services, and other support they might require to sustain their tenancies.
HNZ said its past zero tolerance approach had had a far-reaching effect on tenants, including losing their tenancies, their possessions, being suspended from the waiting list, poor credit ratings and being made homeless.
Twyford and McKenzie said the reimbursement did not prevent former tenants from taking legal action.
In May, the Prime Minister’s then Chief Science Adviser Professor Sir Peter Gluckman produced a report which said there was no evidence that third-hand exposure from methamphetamine smoking caused adverse health effects.
The report found remediation in most cases was needed only in homes that had been former clandestine labs producing the drugs and where meth had been heavily used.
The report said levels that exceeded the current standard of 1.5mcg/100cm2 should not signal a health risk and exposure 10 times higher (15mcg/100cm2) would also be unlikely to have any adverse effects.
Because the risk was so low, testing was not warranted in most cases.
Twyford said at the time that the new regime would make 200 previously unsafe Housing New Zealand houses available and save HNZ around $30 million a year in testing No heads to roll
Yesterday he said he held the former government responsible for the “fiasco” and called for former social housing minister Paula Bennett to apologise for the policy and her regular “gloating” about tenant evictions.
He said no one at HNZ would lose their jobs and neither would YoungCooper.
“This was an organisational failure,” Twyford told reporters.
He said it was clear that HNZ had been told by the previous government that it should operate with a zero tolerance approach.
Gosche, who was appearing because Young-Cooper was overseas, said the board offered a heartfelt apology.
Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said he had asked the new Chief Science Adviser, Professor Juliet Gerrard, to work with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to ensure Standards New Zealand’s standard-setting process was robust.
While MBIE’s independent review of the process for creating the methamphetamine standard complied with the law, he had broader concerns.
“We need to have confidence in our system and to ensure issues such as those encountered by Housing New Zealand tenants do not recur,” Faafoi said in a statement.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the “baseless hysteria and mismanagement by National whilst in government resulted in hurt and pain for vulnerable Kiwis, including the elderly, who just needed a home”.
The Government had removed the requirement for HNZ to make a profit, and was also putting new objectives into the Housing Act to ensure tenants’ wellbeing was put first.