Rise in social housing applicants
The number of Kiwis ‘‘at risk’’ and with severe housing needs have increased, new figures show.
Social Housing Register applications increased by 328, with 3877 people applying for social housing from the end of March to June, compared with 3549 the previous quarter.
Most new applicants (294) had severe housing needs which had to be addressed urgently.
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett said the register constantly fluctuated as people were housed or as their eligibility fluctuated.
She was glad people who needed help were talking to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
‘‘Our frontline teams are working incredibly hard to get people into the right housing for their circumstances, as evidenced by 645 families that were housed in June,’’ she said.
Bennett said she had an ‘‘unwavering focus’’ of getting more people off the register and into housing, and cited the Government’s ‘‘comprehensive plan’’ to increase supply. This included her $41m fund for emergency accommodation, freeing up properties through tenancy reviews and launching a dedicated housing service for young people who are homeless.
However, the Social Housing Register was just an ‘‘administrat- ive figure’’, said Salvation Army analyst Alan Johnson.
‘‘MSD has manipulated access to that list, or to the application process in order to manage numbers down,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s only applications that get through their vetting system, it’s not necessarily all expressions of interest or need.’’ He didn’t believe homelessness had become worse in the past three months, but it had worsened progressively in the past three years. MSD were getting a little more ‘‘generous’’ in their approach to the homeless, he said.
‘‘Clearly the issue of homelessness has become far more politically sensitive in the last two or three months, mainly on account of media attention to it.
‘‘Probably people have been encouraged to continue to try and ask for help.’’
MSD deputy chief executive Carl Crafar denied Johnson’s claims, and welcomed any evidence from him.
‘‘We want to be very clear there has been no change to our process or practice around people applying for social housing,’’ he said. ‘‘The eligibility criteria for accessing social housing has not changed – people are still assessed using five main criteria of Adequacy, Suitability, Affordability, Accessibility and Sustainability.’’
Anyone who felt they had not been assessed correctly needed to get in touch, he said.