Insecure rentals become human rights issue

The private rental market is forcing low-income Kiwis to move too often, the human rights watchdog has told the new Government.

In its briefing to incoming Justice Minister Andrew Little, the Human Rights Commission points to housing as a serious human rights issue that is likely stopping New Zealand from meeting its international obligations to uphold human rights.

The commission suggested an increase in secure social housing to combat New Zealand’s rate of ‘‘residential mobility’’ - where almost one in five Kiwis move every year.

This is the highest rate of moving in the Western world, and close to twice the rate in Britain.

Most of this moving occurs in the private rental market, and many of the people moving are part of low-income families.

‘‘Families with children, particularly one-parent and Ma¯ori and Pacific families, experience much higher levels of discrimination in the private rental market,’’ Human Rights Commission officials wrote in their briefing.

Housing in general had developed into a ‘‘major human rights issue with multiple effects on people’s health and wellbeing’’, particularly children.

A 2015 Government report showed 19.6 per cent of households moved every year.

Almost one in three children in low income families moved early in their lives, compared to approximately one in five children in high income families.

Rental laws

The commission noted that current rental laws allowed landlords to kick tenants out without cause and did not impose any responsibility on a landlord over vulnerable families.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford has promised new legislation by the end of the 2018 that would get rid of no-cause terminations and limit rent increases to once per year.

But the commission suggested more than just new rental laws: officials within the document suggested that for the most vulnerable the security provided by state housing was the best option.

The new Government has promised to stop the state-house sell-off and to build at least 2000 new state homes.

A separate briefing on the state housing situation released on Thursday suggested the number of state homes already in the pipeline was not enough to meet current demand.

Close to 6000 eligible families were waiting for state homes as of September 2017, up 72 per cent over the previous two years.

In the view of the commission, the problems in housing were so serious that New Zealand would need to seriously change things in order to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development goal 11: that all people have access to safe adequate and affordable housing by 2030.

New Zealand had signed up for this human rights commitment but was not yet on its way to meeting it.