Housing plan is ‘ambitious’
Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford has outlined his vision for public housing and how he plans to tackle homelessness.
Twyford told an audience of more than a hundred people at the Salvation Army Manukau, South Auckland, yesterday that homelessness ‘‘strips people of their dignity and hope’’.
He said that when families moved frequently it took a terrible toll, especially on children. Living in cold and damp rental homes shortened people’s lives.
‘‘When housing costs are so high, there isn’t enough [money] to spend on healthy food or pay the power bill.
‘‘When home ownership is out of reach, people are denied the opportunity to build an asset and build themselves up.’’
Twyford said the new Labour-led Government planned to put the ‘‘state’’ back into ‘‘state housing’’.
It would reinvest profits earned by Housing NZ back into building new state homes and upgrading existing ones, and stop the ‘‘mass sell-off’’ of state housing.
Twyford said he wanted the agency to be a world-class landlord. Housing NZ should put a warm, dry and secure roof over the heads of Kiwis who needed it and help tenants to sustain their tenancies and live with dignity. Twyford also spoke about Housing NZ’s policy toward tenants with pets.
Currently, tenants cannot have a dog except in special circumstances, and other pets are accepted with prior approval from Housing NZ.
Twyford said he favoured a more accommodating approach subject to conditions.
He wanted a multi-year plan with groups such as Community Housing Aotearoa to grow the sector in an ambitious but sustainable way. ‘‘My vision is not for some quasi-market where community housing organisations are competing for subsidies, but instead a community of housing providers and advocates working in partnership with government.’’ Twyford said the new Government would build a lot of houses as well as whole new communities.
Regarding homelessness, he said policy responses to the problem were identified by last year’s cross-party inquiry run by the Labour, Green and Ma¯ ori Parties.
‘‘We’re looking to complete the roll-out of emergency and transitional housing places around the country. I don’t want to see people living in cars and camp grounds, and it is not satisfactory for the taxpayer to be shelling out $90,000 a day on motels.’’
Twyford said the Government was committed to developing a strategy to end homelessness and it would work with the sector to achieve that goal.
The Kiwibuild policy would see 100,000 affordable houses built for first-home buyers in New Zealand, with half of them in Auckland.
The Government would set up a housing commission to lead large-scale projects to build whole communities that had the jobs, transport infrastructure and open spaces and amenities that people needed.
Such new communities would have a mix of state and community housing, affordable Kiwibuild properties for first-home buyers, and open market homes.
Twyford said legislation would be introduced restricting the sale of existing homes to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents. And if speculators sold a rental property within five years of buying it they would pay income tax on the capital gain.
‘‘We will also shut down the negative-gearing tax breaks that give speculators an unfair advantage over first-home buyers. And our Tax Working Group is being asked to design tax reforms that will tilt the playing field away from real estate speculation and toward the productive economy that creates jobs and exports.’’
The Government would review the Residential Tenancies Act next year to deliver more security of tenure for renters, Twyford said.
‘‘I know this is an ambitious agenda, but the scale of the crisis demands ambition.’’