Social housing need soars as winter nears
Wainuiomata mother-of-three Rebecca knows how hard it is to be a number on the ever-growing waiting list for social housing.
For the past month she has slept in her car, which has now broken down, while her children – all aged under 8 – were staying with their grandparents.
Rebecca, who did not want her last name used, was on the waiting list for a Housing New Zealand home and had applied for about a dozen private rentals in the area.
But with 30 to 50 people turning up for viewings, she has not stood a chance against childless couples, many of whom are from Wellington City.
New figures show more than 1000 people from across the Wellington region are heading into winter on the rapidly-growing waiting list for social housing as some hunker down in garages, cars and tents.
Nationally, the number of households on the list has skyrocketed to 7890 – a rise of 26 per cent, which Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford says is the biggest in four years.
In just three months, the Wellington list, which includes Kapiti, Porirua and Hutt Valley, has leapt by 200.
Hutt Valley-based Labour MP Ginny Andersen will this week tell Hutt City Council that housing, along with roading, are the big issues it has to deal with.
Between March 2015 and March 2018, the number of people on the social housing wait list across Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti swelled from 236 to 1039.
Andersen said the problem in Lower Hutt, where the numbers soared by 512 per cent from 57 to 349, was exacerbated by the removal of social housing in areas such as Epuni and Pomare.
The previous National Government had been too slow to build new state houses, she said.
That put more pressure on the private rental market which, in places such as Wainuiomata, was already bloated as Wellingtonians were forced out of the capital by rising rents.
Andersen knew of people who were sleeping in tents, cars, garages and churches as they sat on state home waiting lists. Others cannot even get on a list.
At least 150 of the new KiwiBuild homes were being built in Epuni, Lower Hutt, which would take some pressure off, she said.
Housing is the big issue for Hutt City Council. MP Ginny Andersen