Housing waitlist surges
A huge 8704 eligible families are waiting an average of 137 days for a state house – more than double the waiting time two years ago.
The waitlist is growing and families are waiting longer even as the new Government tries to get more state houses on the ground. The Ministry of Social Development published the figures for the end of June in the public housing register yesterday. It shows another 1885 people are waiting for a transfer in between state houses.
The average time to house – either a transfer or a new property – was 136.7 days, up from 121.2 in March. This number was influenced by a few very long waits – the median time was lower at 77 days, up from 64 in March. Over half of the households (4458) were in Auckland. Not all of those who are on the waitlist are homeless – they are simply eligible for public housing. But a fifth (20 per cent) did list themselves as homeless, while 30 per cent said their current housing was inadequate of unsuitable.
There was also a jump in short-term motel stays, with 2879 people making use of the grant, up from 2123 in March.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford said he expected things to get worse before they got better. ‘‘This is the legacy of National for nine years allowing the housing crisis to spin out of control,’’ Twyford said.
‘‘We expected the waiting list to grow as more of the hidden homeless – families living in overcrowded homes, people couch surfing and others living in substandard homes and unsustainable conditions – come forward for help. Our Government is doing everything possible to urgently increase the amount of public housing.
‘‘We have also provided more than 1000 of the 1500 transitional, public and Housing First places we committed to bringing on board this winter, compared with the end of last year.’’
The Government is planning to build 6400 state homes by 2021, bringing the total number of social houses to about 71,000.
This target has been criticised by National, who were planning to build to 70,000 by 2020.
At the start of winter Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that no Kiwi should need to sleep in a car during the season.
National MPs have criticised Twyford for pausing all eligibility checks on current public housing tenants. Housing spokeswoman Judith Collins has said this will mean people are spending too long in public housing and keeping homes from the truly needy.
Twyford rejected this and said only a handful of tenants had not been subject to eligibility checks who normally would have.
He reiterated that the National Party ‘‘sold off state housing the middle of a housing crisis and reduced the stock of public housing by 1500’’.