‘Sense of hopelessness’ at Ma¯ori housing crisis
The booming housing market is pushing thousands of buyers out of contention but tangata whenua are in the worst position
Taxpayers will be picking up the bill to help Ma¯ ori out of poverty if the Government does not take ‘‘radical’’ action to properly address the Ma¯ ori housing crisis, an iwi leader has warned.
Home ownership has become increasingly unattainable for many but Ma¯ori are faring the worst, Ma¯ori Party co-leader Debbie NgarewaPacker said.
Tangata whenua were now in danger of becoming trapped on a treadmill of poverty, she said.
Ma¯ ori home ownership rates have been falling nationally since 1999, with the latest census showing it had plummeted to 26 per cent, compared with 41 per cent for non-Ma¯ ori.
In Taranaki, where Ma¯ ori account for 20 per cent of the population – about
20,000 people – 4149 own their own home, a rate less than 25 per cent.
Among non-Ma¯ori in Taranaki,
42,921 people own their own home, an ownership rate close to 50 per cent.
‘‘Pre-Covid it was tough but postCovid, it is just cruel. We are seeing suffering in a section, in a tight part of our community, who sadly represent tangata whenua,’’ Ngarewa-Packer, also a South Taranaki iwi leader, said.
‘‘There is a really deep sense of hopelessness that I have never seen before,’’ Ngarewa-Packer said.
Median house prices nationwide have rocketed by 24.3 per cent to a new record high of $826,300 in March, up from $665,000 a year ago. Taranaki’s median price has climbed 21.2 per cent for the same period. But as house prices surge, incomes are not increasing anywhere near as fast and Ma¯ ori remain further on the back foot, earning an average $24.98 an hour compared with European workers who earn $28.01, Stats NZ figures show.
Ngarewa-Packer, who has long lent her voice for the people of her South Taranaki iwi – Nga¯ti Ruanui, Nga¯ruahine and Nga¯ Rauru – has seen the effects firsthand.
‘‘I know young couples who are both working and the husband has also got two jobs and they have been saving for three years, living with mum and dad, to get the deposit together only to then have houses in Taranaki selling for $150,000 to $170,000 higher than value.
‘‘I have seen it even within my own family.’’ Ngarewa-Packer said that with no way to acquire assets such as a home, there was no ‘‘light in sight at the end of the poverty tunnel’’ for Ma¯ ori. The consequences of that meant more funding would be needed for social services to assist with the symptoms of poverty including poor housing, poor health, low educational outcomes, and an increase in suicide and crime rates.
’’The Government’s Wellbeing Budget just won’t cut it.’’
Last week, Ngarewa-Packer called on the Government to introduce a targeted Ma¯ ori housing package, saying the recently announced Housing Package did not include specific policies aimed at increasing Ma¯ ori home ownership.
She suggested a scheme similar to the Department of Ma¯ ori Affairs housing programme which ran from 1935 to
1967 and made low income Ma¯ori earners eligible for low-interest government loans.
This was the sort of ‘‘radical intervention’’ needed, she said, claiming it would immediately stop poverty.
Iwi have long been trying to pick up the pieces of the housing crisis faced by their people.
Te A¯ tiawa, for example, has embarked on a broad property investment programme, which has seen it purchase and develop a number of residential sites in and around New Plymouth, including a 14-section residential development at Record St, Fitzroy, known as Te Kekeu.
It also recently announced a multimillion-dollar, 30-unit terraced housing development near New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park, named Pukekura – The Parade.
Iwi members have maintained priority rights in the purchasing process.
The projects exemplified Te A¯ tiawa’s commitment to being a top property developer over the long term and to deliver outcomes for hapu¯ and wha¯ nau, Te Kotahitanga o Te A¯ tiawa chairwoman Liana Poutu previously told Stuff.
The iwi also has the programme Ka Uruora, which supports its wha¯ nau in a number of ways including with financial assistance to buy their own home.
In Parliament last week, Housing Minister Megan Woods acknowledged the Government did ‘‘have concerns’’ over Ma¯ ori home ownership.
But it was ‘‘actively responding’’, she said, pointing out a number of initiatives, including a $40 million package for Ma¯ ori housing in Budget
2019.
Public health physician Dr Rhys Jones describes the housing crisis as a health issue. Multiple health problems stemmed from poor quality housing, overcrowding and homelessness – all issues in which Ma¯ori were overrepresented.
And while home ownership was not the ‘‘be-all and end-all’’ Jones, also a senior lecturer in Ma¯ori health at Auckland University, said having a sense of control and autonomy was an important factor for establishing optimum health.
But due to the decreasing affordability of housing, those inequities and intergenerational poverty would become further entrenched in te ao Ma¯ori, Jones, of Nga¯ti Kahungunu, said.
‘‘The people that are able to own homes, and especially those who can own multiple homes and rent properties to others, have the means of increasing their equity and developing their properties and have ongoing secured livelihood.
‘‘Others, particularly the Ma¯ori Pasifika population, constantly struggle to just get by and to pay rent – it increases that wealth divide.
‘‘It is very much a vicious cycle.’’ As former landowners of much of Aotearoa, it was ‘‘soul-destroying’’ Ma¯ ori were now so under-represented in home ownership, the chair of Te Matapihi, an independent Ma¯ ori housing advocacy group, said.
‘‘Land is pretty central to Ma¯ori identity. If you are separated from your land, then you lose that identity,’’ Basil Tapuke said.
‘‘But just from the general point of view, if you are looking at your land and it is either being used for something else or it is going to rack and ruin that is also soul-destroying.’’
Tapuke, of Te A¯ tiawa, said the Government could immediately help mitigate the issue of Ma¯ ori home ownership with better funding and a better approach to help with housing intelligence.
‘‘It needs to be by Ma¯ ori for Ma¯ ori. ‘‘It is about how do you make it easier for Ma¯ ori families to access that funding, how do you make it a better experience, I suppose.
‘‘Sometimes you are not aware of the full range of options that you might have available to you.’’
Funding would need to service the whole continuum of housing with different strategies in place to overcome barriers encountered in emergency housing through to private ownership.
‘‘If you look across the whole continuum, say for example, if you look at papaka¯inga housing, the biggest restriction there is financing on Ma¯ ori land – so what are the sorts of tools and leverages you can use for that part of the continuum,’’ Tapuke said.
‘‘There is not one silver bullet.’’