The ‘Kath and Kim’ of housing

What do solutions to Auckland’s housing crisis, and the Australian television sitcom Kath and Kim have in common? The line: ‘‘It’s deja vu all over again.’’ Auckland councillors have seized with urgency the need to find new ways to make renting or ownership more than a dream, not just for young first-timers, but working households.

Much of the renewed debate is a re-run of where they were five to eight years ago.

The mayor’s housing taskforce hastily convened after his election in 2016, whipped up a list of issues, many of which are also in the council’s Housing Action Plan from 2012.

Take the concept of ‘‘inclusionary zoning’’, or requiring proportions of new developments to be genuine affordable homes.

Auckland councillors backed away from the notion in 2013 as they pulled together the proposed development blueprint, the Unitary Plan.

Now it’s back, with a seeming 180-degree turn from the mayor Phil Goff.

‘‘It’s not something that’s due to come up for council debate any time soon,’’ Goff told Stuff a month ago.

Four week’s later councillor Cathy Casey promoted it in a notice of motion calling for urgent action to plug the city’s yawning affordability gap. Passed unanimously.

Goff at that meeting backed inclusionary zoning: ‘‘I do think we need to revisit the [2013] decision.’’

The Planning Committee, chaired by Chris Darby, is this week formally commissioning work at looking how to define, and tackle affordability.

As someone who has watched the council from its first meeting in November 2010, it is frustrating to see the issue come around again and again, like a carousel.

Many solutions to housing affordability are being practised now around Auckland, in small but highly effective ways by community housing providers.

Ideas to help people into the homes that are built, rather than trying to force down prices.

Shared equity, or rent-to-buy schemes to help low-income families get a foothold in their own homes, but which will need big financial backing to scale up to the level needed. To name but one idea.

Auckland Council will need to persuade the Government to back that upscaling.

The council may also need to look at how well it is placed to drive housing change.

It no longer has a senior executive with overall responsibility for housing, following a restructure.

Another position of manager, Affordable Housing Policy was abandoned after the highlyregarded encumbent left last year.

In the 2012 Housing Action Plan, one call was for the council to ‘‘maintain’’ the issuing of 95 per cent of building consents with the statutory time frame of 20 days.

Two weeks ago the council admitted it was in trouble with retaining staff, and only 52 per cent are now processed on time.

At the time the Housing Action Plan was written, the average price of an Auckland house was $562,000.

Six years later, as the mayoral task force prepares to release only its second progress report in 20 months, it’s now more than $1 million.

Councillors wanting urgent action need to remember the meter has been running for a long time, and didn’t start at last week’s meeting.

... it is frustrating to see the issue come around again and again, like a carousel.