Crisis talker must be crisis action man

Housing Minister Phil Twyford needs to move out of Opposition mode and start making inroads to the problem he has long called a “crisis”. He used the term again yesterday when publishing the report he commissioned soon after taking up the housing portfolio. The report, a “stocktake” of the problem, tells him, he says, “the housing crisis is deeper and more entrenched than previously revealed”.

The basis for the conclusion is an estimate by emergency housing providers that they are turning away up to nine out of 10 homeless people who seek help.

“Homelessness” is an elusive term. In last year’s election campaign, Twyford constantly alluded to “40,000 homeless” and always next mentioned people living on the streets and in cars. But they are probably a few hundred at most. The majority of the “homeless” are in transient, overcrowded or substandard accommodation.

At its peak, in May last year, the Ministry of Social Development gave out 4300 emergency-housing special-needs grants. That gives a better idea of the scale of the urgent need.

The report does not throw much more light on elements of the housing shortage that have been documented and discussed for a long time. That is not to say the problem is well understood. Large gaps in our knowledge remain, particularly to do with the number of houses that may stand empty in places such as Auckland, held for their investment value by owners who do not need rental income, nor want the hassle and damage tenants may cause. The stocktake does not include that aspect, though it notes rental-property returns have declined even as rents have risen in recent years.

It tells us we are “quickly becoming a society divided by ownership of housing and its related wealth” and it believes “tax policy settings have exacerbated this division”.

It blames much of the housing shortage on a decline in state housing since the 1980s, noting that the proportion of tenants renting privately rose from 60 per cent to 83 per cent between 1991 and 2013.

Much of the information in the “stocktake” is based on the 2013 census, which probably understated most problems by now.

The immigration surge that increased the demand for housing to present levels was just beginning in 2013. The results of this year’s census could present a grimmer picture.

This is not the “up to date picture” the minister promised when he commissioned the work from two academics and the social policy advocate. Twyford looked forward to an “opening the books”, believing the previous Government had hidden the worst data.

Well, if this is the “books” it is a familiar story. The public knew how much house prices had raced ahead of income increases in recent decades. It knew home ownership rates had fallen to their lowest level in 60 years.

The report says, “there are no short-term fixes”. The public probably knew that too.

It is time to see some action.