Emergency housing costing millions
Despite talk of the housing crisis subsiding the government spent a record $12.6m on emergency housing grants in the past three months.
The money went to 11,446 grants that each covered a sevenday motel stay for a family or individual in dire need.
Some people would have obtained the grant multiple times.
The numbers were released yesterday, a day after Auckland Council’s Homelessness Policy Project estimated 24,000 people in Auckland did not have adequate housing.
The whopping $12.6m is up from $8.8m spent in the first three months of the 2017 for 9218 grants, and $7.7m in the past three months of 2016 for 8860 grants.
When the government introduced the policy in 2016 it budgeted just $2m a year for the scheme. It then rapidly became oversubscribed.
In the same three-month period the government also spent $16.2m on accommodation-related hardship assistance, up from $15m in the same quarter of 2016.
Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni said the numbers showed that New Zealanders were clearly no better off after nine years of a National government.
‘‘There is a continuing trend of people finding it harder to make ends meet - of hardship grants across the board, particularly in relation to accommodation,’’ Sepuloni said.
‘‘I can’t imagine it getting any better in the next cycle.’’
The experience of using the short term grants could be incredibly stressful.
‘‘People are going to emergency accommodation on the other side of Auckland but still having to find a way to get their kids to school in the morning and picked up in the afternoon, as well as getting work.’’
‘‘It’s really stressful when people come up on that seventh day as they don’t know if Work and Income is going to support them again for another week.’’
Green MP Jan Logie said the numbers showed there was an urgent need to build more housing.
‘‘It’s pretty hard to look at the fact that 11 and a half thousand people needed emergency housing grants and say that’s not a crisis,’’ Logie said.
‘‘When people are living in cars and on the streets and in garden sheds - we just can’t accept, we can’t allow that to happen.’’
More people would need the grant during the winter months.
‘‘The garage will no longer be habitable – those camping out or living in their cars will get to a point where people cannot put up with it,’’ Logie said.
‘‘And we’re only through winter.’’ to halfway
The money could be used to immediately build more social housing rather than paid out to private moteliers.
Social housing minister Amy Adams has been contacted for comment.
When asked about the higher than expected demand for emergency housing in February Prime Minister Bill English said was not a sign that there was a housing crisis.
‘‘I wouldn’t call it a crisis. We have strong demand, we have an uplift in prices – these are good problems to have actually,’’ he told The AM Show.
‘‘It’s a demand-led grant, so if people show up, they get it...we’ll just keep paying as people need it,’’ he said.
A recent International Monetary Fund measure of developed countries said New Zealand had the most unaffordable house prices in the world and second most unaffordable rent prices.