‘False hope’ culled from waiting lists

The majority of people on South Waikato pensioner housing waiting lists are no longer eligible.

The district’s ageing population is putting the squeeze on the South Waikato District Council’s 79 pensioner units. There are 117 people on the waiting list.

But during the council’s monthly meeting on Thursday a decision was made to remove ‘‘false hope’’ from the vast majority of them.

The council will prioritise those on the waiting list into three categories, in order of need: A, B and C.

The new eligibility criteria for access to the pensioner housing means only about 15-20 people will still be eligible.

Strategic policy manager Hemopereki Simon said recent surveys of applicants and residents allowed the council to determine what the need was.

‘‘We have had a number of cases come forward where someone may be 50 years old and they put their application in for pensioner housing thinking that by the time they are 65 and retired they will [have moved up the list and] be eligible for pensioner housing,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re also now having people say that they think it might be time for them to have a serious look at their own applications and possibly withdraw them.’’

Under the new rules, single applicants can’t have an income of more than $20,000 a year or $30,000 for a couple and they can’t own their own home.

Rules for Category A require single applicants to be at least 65 years old and they must have been a South Waikato resident for at least five years.

Category B has the same age requirements as A but applicants are required to have been local residents for only three years, while Category C requires applicants to be at least 60 and to have been local residents for at least a year.

The new criteria pushes anyone who is still in part-time employment off the list, as well as those who may have their home listed for sale.

Councillor Bill Machen said he was relieved to hear the situation wasn’t as bad as he thought.

‘‘I have been a supporter of pensioner housing, especially when our numbers went from under 100 to over 100 on our waiting list, but I am now being led to believe that quite a few of them might have just put their names on in hope of the future as we have got a number still working and in housing,’’ he said.

‘‘We don’t have as big a problem as I personally thought.’’

Mayor Jenny Shattock said adopting the criteria was a risky move but one she supported.

‘‘It is going to be a huge communications risk to tell all those other people that, actually, you are not really eligible so find your own [home] and get off the list,’’ she said.

‘‘[However] I think this is a good way of managing the waiting list of the pensioner units.’’

She said the criteria will not impact those already in units.