High rents creating ‘working poor’

Salvation Army says homelessness is now affecting wider section of NZ’s population

Families with young children crowded into motels are part of a new class of “working poor” being driven into poverty by rising house prices and soaring rents, support agencies warn.

Motels are increasingly being used as emergency accommodation as a severe shortage of affordable housing puts struggling families under strain.

Salvation Army social services national practice manager Jono Bell said more people came to the support group in the past year for help with housing than almost any other issue.

“What we are hearing from our centres is that [homelessness] is affecting a wider section of the population.”

The church charity said four out of 10 families living in poverty were now “working poor”, battling to get by despite one or more householders being in full-time employment.

They included, until recently, Tauranga mum Kristal Heke, who was living in a motel with six children — including newborn twins — despite her partner working full-time as a painter. They were found transitional housing only last week.

The Salvation Army points to the rising number of families needing food parcels in 2017 — 60 per cent of whom had never sought help before.

“It’s difficult to explain that in any other way than because of rent rises,” said its senior policy analyst Alan Johnson.

“There was an increase in government support, more jobs than ever before and wages have been rising — but rents have been rising faster.”

The only way to address this poverty was to tackle underlying issues in the housing market.

The new Labour-led Government claims it is, having promised to build 100,000 affordable homes in the next decade as part of its KiwiBuild programme and 6400 new state homes over the next four years.

But doubts remain — including

from within the Government’s own Treasury — that the building industry has enough workers to meet the timeframes.

Despite this, one short-term government plan was working, Te Puea Memorial Marae chairman Hurimoana Dennis said.

As winter looms, his marae has again opened its doors to homeless families in a continuation of a programme it started in 2016. Back then many families arrived without notice, having been slept in cars. “They had half the kitchen sink in the back of the car, and you could see physically they were sleeping in their vehicles.”

But now there seemed to be far fewer families living in cars and vans because a lot had gone to motels, Dennis said.

Yet finding longer-term solutions will take more than just finding ways to pay the rent. Family violence, poverty, debt, poor decision-making and rising living prices were prevailing causes of homelessness among those Te Puea marae helped, he said.

“To be fair, homelessness is a spotlight that highlights other issues.”