Study will document 'underbelly'
A STUDY being done of QueenstownLakes housing issues will document the ‘‘underbelly of the boom town’’ and the hardship faced by some in the district, those leading the project say.
The Southern District Health Board study — which follows a similar Central Otago study released last month — would focus on the ‘‘personal stories’’ of those struggling to find accommodation and how it was affecting their lives and families, board medical director of strategy, primary and community care, Dr Hywel Lloyd, said.
Dr Lloyd said it was too soon to know what the QueenstownLakes study would find or when it would be completed.
But he said the Central Otago and QueenstownLakes districts were ‘‘inextricably linked’’.
Queenstown and Wanaka were the ‘‘original boom towns’’, but the displacement of people from there into Central Otago meant housing issues were felt in both areas.
‘‘The two things [districts] are linked. You can’t look at one area without the other.’’
Dr Lloyd said using qualitative research methods to tell family stories ‘‘in an emotional context’’ was a deliberate strategy and central to the housing studies. The approach had uncovered ‘‘heartwrenching’’ Central Otago stories that would be ‘‘confronting’’ to many.
The QueenstownLakes study would follow the same approach.
‘‘It will document the underbelly of the boom town . . . It will look at the boom town experience in terms of how it has affected housing . . . the burden and brunt of rising [housing] costs.’’
Both studies were commissioned because of the increasing stories of housingrelated hardship being heard in the health and other sectors.
Housing was a social determinant of health, Dr Lloyd said.
The Central Otago study had contained ‘‘harrowing’’ examples of families experiencing severe housingrelated hardship, Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said when it was released.
The study found multiple examples of people living in camping grounds and ‘‘sleeping rough’’; overcrowding of homes was becoming increasingly common; and many people could not afford healthcare, heating or proper food because of skyrocketing rents.
It also talked about the ‘‘devastating’’ impact the housing crisis was having on the mental health of people affected by housing issues, and said the mixed housing now typical of some areas was exposing vulnerable people to drug use from their housemates.
Dr Lloyd hoped the Central Otago study would cause a ‘‘call to action’’ and the 20 recommendations it made would start to be actioned.
Finding solutions to the ‘‘complexity’’ of the housing issue would require collaborative, interagency work, Dr Lloyd said.
The recommendations of the Central Otago study included establishing an interagency task force and appointing a ‘‘local’’ housing coordinator.