Public housing waitlist hits 17,982
The waitlist for public housing hit a new high in May, with almost 18,000 households waiting for a state or community home.
Of the 17,982 households, more than 16,000 were ‘‘Priority A’’ – meaning an urgent need.
The waitlist has ballooned in recent years, trebling from the 5844 households on the waitlist when the current Government was elected in September 2017.
While the Government has built a significant number of new state homes, with almost 2500 more public housing places made available in the past year, it has not kept up with an explosion of demand. Just over 2000 households were added to the waitlist in May, while 517 were housed. The median time to house grew to 155 days in May, up from 130 the month prior.
Grants for emergency motelstays increased in May to 6283, up from 5091 the month prior.
Unemployment spiked over that period as a result of the coronavirus economic crash, which likely increased demand for public and emergency housing. Actual rough sleeping was essentially eliminated during the Covid-19 lockdown as more emergency housing was brought into play. Public housing minister Kris Faafoi has been asked for comment.
In the past, Faafoi has defended the growth in the waitlist as a result of his Government’s more welcoming stance to applicants. He has also blamed the National Party’s decision to sell or convert state homes while in power.
As of the end of March, the Government had built 3062 new state homes in less than three years and provided about 500 new community housing places.
National built 2670 state houses over nine years and sold 2728, with many of these becoming community housing.