BOARDING HOUSE RULES
‘‘it’s not safe here,’’ she says in broken English.
Social worker Anne is currently helping around 20 families get out of boarding houses around South Auckland, and her organisation has dealt with hundreds of others. She didn’t want her full name published out of fear it would hinder access to those families.
‘‘The reality is that families can languish in boarding houses for years,’’ she warns.
Anne paints a bleak future for baby Julia, should she get stuck: ‘‘Living this way really denigrates the dignity of a person; it touches everything – their health, psychology, education, and employment.’’
‘‘When you sleep in a room infested with cockroaches and fleas, surrounded by parties and fights each night, how can you be in the right mind frame for school the next morning?’’ she asks.
Boarding houses can be an education in themselves and many do not have a strict door policy.
They’re home to drug addicts THERE is no national database of boarding houses. A tenancy services spokesperson says councils can maintain a register ‘‘if they choose’’.
Even saying what one is is vague with definitions ranging from ad-hoc operations in former state houses, to multi-storey complexes that look like hotels. The most basic definition comes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment describes them as residences with at least six tenants each renting a room and sharing kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Landlords are legally responsible for repairs and security and house rules are set and the mentally disturbed; to sex offenders and violent former inmates placed there by Corrections; anyone unable to convince a landlord they would make an upstanding tenant. by property managers, with national minimum standards a fire safety plan and drinkable water.
Chief probation officer Darius Fagan says it’s not possible to know how many parolees are in boarding houses ‘‘as it is not always easy to determine what is and what isn’t a boarding house’’.
Auckland Council’s resource consent manager Steve Pearce estimates there are approximately 160 boarding houses in the city. The council responds to complaints and conducts ‘‘proactive inspections every few years’’. Pearce can’t say how many boarding houses the council has shut down, as the data is not collated.
Former residents speak of sneaking in to live rent-free for weeks before being found out. One manager complained to Corrections this year of discovering an obsessive bomb- maker and an unreformed rapist, placed there by parole officers without a background briefing or warning to fellow residents.
Anne says it’s not unusual for mothers to stand guard outside bathrooms as their daughters shower or use the toilet, to ward off opportunistic lechers.
Some boarding houses have child bans, but Anne says she’s heard of managers letting families stay anyway and telling them to hide their kids if the police or council inspectors roll up.
The Ministry of Social Development does not deem boarding houses safe as emergency accommodation for families. Instead, it refers them to self-contained motel units.
‘‘This is ironic,’’ says Anne, ‘‘because if a family applies for emergency accommodation when they’re living in a boarding house they’re going to be told ‘no, you are already adequately housed’.’’
It’s Anne’s mission to prove otherwise.
‘‘Life in lodges is pretty similar to sleeping in a car or a garage, then going into someone else’s house to use the kitchen and bathroom.’’
She documents the maggots, the leaks, the one bed for a family of five, the unisex bathroom shared by dozens. Then she insists the ministry conduct a housing assessment for families she works with.
Housing assessments ‘‘most often’’ lead to the family getting put on the social housing register or offered emergency accommodation, says Anne. ‘‘But 10 out of 10 times a family will not get offered an assessment unless I am on the phone too, asking for it.’’
When asked what she wants from life, baby Julia’s mother thinks of the basics first.
‘‘Clothes for the baby,’’ Mika says. ‘‘And some plates.’’
Then she looks at her daughter and reflects that she mainly wants happiness for Julia.
‘‘I am so proud of her already,’’ she says.
‘‘Julia is a very kind girl – if someone is crying, she gives them her toys . . . even if they are mean. This is what I try to teach her.’’
Living this way really denigrates the dignity of a person; it touches everything – their health, psychology, education, and employment.’ SOCIAL WORKER ANNE