Activists seek cleanout at top
The bosses of both Housing NZ and Work and Income ‘‘must go’’, says lobby group State Housing Action Network.
The call for heads to roll follows revelations that state tenants were evicted based on claims of health risks because of meth testing. It turns out there were no health risks.
Housing NZ misinterpreted a 2010 Ministry of Health standard which led to millions of dollars being spent on needless cleaning and testing while hundreds of tenants were moved out.
State Housing Action Network convener John Minto said: ‘‘It’s evident from tenant accounts ... that Housing NZ is infused with toxic attitudes towards lowincome New Zealanders which has caused untold suffering and needless stress for the most vulnerable ... The same culture has been obvious in Winz for a longer time,’’ Minto said. ‘‘It’s a culture of bullying and disentitlement.’’
He called on the Government to replace the boards and senior management of Housing NZ, and Work and Income. Those top managers needed to go in order ‘‘to drive a genuine and transformative culture change ... towards beneficiaries and lowincome New Zealanders’’. Minto said the previous National Government chose leaders at Work and Income ‘‘to drive people off welfare at whatever the personal costs to families while the leadership at Housing NZ was put in place to privatise thousands of state houses.
‘‘The wrong people with the wrong values are at the head of both organisations,’’ Minto said.
‘‘Transformative culture change can only come with the Government replacing the boards and senior leadership of both organisations.’’ Minto also called on Housing Minister Phil Twyford to repeal the Social Housing Reform Act 2013 and to turn Housing NZ into a government department – a promise made by Labour during the election campaign. ‘‘Housing NZ must get back to its core purpose of helping people into homes, stopping the demolition of state houses and the gentrification of state house suburbs.’’
Twyford said his priority was to drive a process of organisational change at Housing NZ. ‘‘We stopped the state house sell-off, we’re now investing $4 billion in building 6400 additional state houses and I’ve directed Housing NZ to take a more tenant-centred and compassionate approach,’’ Twyford said. ‘‘And by commissioning the report by the prime minister’s chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman, I’ve opened up the whole meth testing scandal to scientific and public scrutiny.
‘‘The Government has decided that restructuring Housing NZ at this point would hinder rather than help the organisational change work.’’
Housing NZ chief executive Andrew Mckenzie said it was transitioning policies and operational practices ‘‘in recognition of the fact that a focus on housing those in highest need requires us to have a more empathetic response as a landlord’’.