BROOKE LOADER
Waikato, Labour
The people of Matamata-Piako are suffering because of the housing crisis. I hear of sick children living in overcrowded, unsanitary, uninsulated accommodation, and see families not being able to afford rent let alone purchase their own home.
I believe it is important for families to live in a warm, dry, and stable home, so they can be healthy, get the education they need, hold down jobs, and be positive contributing members of the community.
This is what I want for my two-year-old daughter, and for all families in the community.
However, in the past year, house prices increased in Matamata-Piako by 20.1 per cent, from $285,000 to $342,000.
Home ownership has dropped as people cannot afford to own their own homes. Just 30 per cent of adults under 40 own their own home in the district. In Waikato last year, rents increased by 2.9per cent an average $325 per week. In Matamata-Piako, 207 houses have no heating, and there are 12 families waiting for state houses while seven state houses sit empty. These statistics are shocking. The government has failed to solve the housing crisis.
Labour’s plans will provide government support to solve this issue so that we can finally see in the changes that the community so desperately needs.
Maori Party, Hauraki-Waikato
people, and our wha¯nau. Wha¯nau and community led solutions are required. These solutions must include more new Wha¯nau Ora navigator positions, more investment into community led development projects in the areas of health, housing, employment, education, and so on. Drug dependency is a growing problem. There is a need to establish Kaupapa Ma¯ori drug and alcohol residential treatment centres and more community-based programmes.
We must work together to think boldly and be innovative, building fences at the top of cliffs, not ambulances (and prisons) at the bottom.
All of these issues are inter-related and connected, and must be addressed to achieve total wellbeing.
New Zealand First, Waikato