State tenants wait list soars
More than 9000 eligible households are on the waiting list for public housing, up a third on the figure at the end of last year.
Figures released under the Official Information Act to Stuff show that at the end of August, 9344 eligible households were on the waiting list for public housing – state or social houses.
The number climbed from 8704 in June, and 6182 at the end of last year. It has more than doubled since September 2016.
Of the current 9344 on the waiting list, more than 7000 were given the ‘‘A’’ priority, meaning the Ministry of Social Development had classified them as being in the most severe need of housing.
Almost 2000 current public housing tenants are waiting for a transfer to a more suitable home.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford said the rising number on the waiting list was a delayed response to ‘‘year after year of a worsening housing crisis right across the market’’.
‘‘Low income households who are renting are among the most vulnerable.
‘‘And when the housing market goes haywire, it’s these people who are at the sharp end of it. They need public housing,’’ he said.
‘‘The other thing is that our Government has been saying since the day we were elected that we are going to pull out all the stops to support people who need housing, so people know that, they are coming forward.’’
He noted that the Government had actually overshot its goal to build 1500 new emergency and public housing places for winter
2018 but even doing that, it was still paying for more emergency motel stays than ever.
‘‘We’re doing more in this area than ever before . . . And yet we’ve been using more special needs grants than ever before.’’
Twyford said that although house price inflation in Auckland had stabilised, rents did not necessarily stop growing the moment house prices did.
The Government has budgeted for an extra 1600 housing places a year for the next four years.
National housing spokeswoman Judith Collins has repeatedly criticised Twyford for pausing a tenancy review for Housing New Zealand while he worked on new standards, which were released late last month.
Tenancy review is a process whereby Housing New Zealand checks if families still need public housing.
Collins has alleged that the lack of tenancy reviews over that period, along with a more healthbased approach to meth usage on properties, means tenants who don’t deserve a state house are staying in them longer, which is leaving the truly needy to wait longer and longer for housing.
Twyford rejected this argument, saying only a handful of tenancy review evictions were ever happening, even under National.
‘‘The eviction numbers and terminations are negligibly small, and were negligibly small under them, compared to the number of people who move out of public housing into the private rental market of their own accord.’’
Average weekly rents for new tenancies in Auckland peaked at
$569 in May, according to bond data held by the Government. A woman waiting for a kidney transplant says the motel she’s been placed in is making her sick.
Summa Stone occupies one of 18 units at the Sunset Lodge Motel in West Auckland, all of which are currently being used for emergency housing by the Ministry of Social Development.
Her new home was cold, damp, endlessly draughty and connected to a ‘‘foul’’ drinking water supply, she said.
At night, she could hear the wind whistling past her door.
‘‘We’re meant to be finding adequate living places for ourselves [but] it seems really hopeless with no help,’’ Stone said. ‘‘I’ve been without a permanent place to live for four months or so. Prior to that I was couch surfing.’’
Stone, who has had kidney issues for more than two years, is currently on dialysis – medical treatment she receives at Waitakere Hospital three days a week.
She’s waiting for a transplant and hopes she can find a house that’s more suitable long-term.
But as a single woman on the invalid’s benefit, it was tough finding somewhere she could afford, and the temperamental wifi at the motel wasn’t helping with the search, she said.
‘‘I watch TV, park myself up in bed, and try and get well. It’s OK, I’m a survivor.’’
Mother-of-five Anastasia Telea Tamasese has lived at the motel for 11 months.
The family is crammed into a two-bedroom apartment with beds pushed together in the lounge to maximise space. Tamasese moved into the motel in November 2017 but would not be able to transition into a Housing New Zealand home until her residency was approved.
She had been living in New Zealand for 10 years but only held a working visa. It expires in March.