Government wipes tenants’ meth mess debts
The Government will wipe and refund debts incurred by public housing tenants during the punitive and flawed meth-testing regime.
The money will go towards tenants who had to borrow money from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to move houses and buy new personal items when they did so.
If the debts remain on the books they will be wiped and if they have been paid the tenants will be refunded.
The flawed regime was dismantled last year when a new report by the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser Peter Gluckman found there was no evidence that properties where meth had been only smoked – and not produced – posed any health risk.
He also found that the standard used by Housing New Zealand to test for meth was absurdly low, meaning many tenants lost their houses over traces that didn’t prove they had done anything wrong.
The hysteria between 2013 and 2018 saw nearly 800 tenants found ‘‘responsible’’ and kicked out of their properties, some of them being forced into paying damages in the Tenancy Tribunal.
Those tenants have already received an apology and compensation from Housing New Zealand last year.
Given about 800 people were involved the total bill for wiping these debts would be relatively small, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said.
‘‘This is one more way we can right things for people who needed emergency housing and other MSD support after their Housing NZ tenancies ended because of erroneous meth contamination policies,’’ Sepuloni said.
‘‘Some people who lost their homes then turned to MSD for support for things like emergency housing, moving costs, storage, replacement furniture, school uniforms or bond and rent in advance.’’
Each person will be contacted by MSD and worked with on a case-by-case basis, she said.
Any refunds would not contribute to assessable income by MSD, so would not change or abate other benefits.
Rosemary Rudolph, 88, was moved from her Auckland state home of over 50 years after it tested positive for meth. Housing NZ were also worried for her safety after a firearms incident involving a family member. Rudolph told Stuff that at one point her pension was being deducted to pay back debt incurred during her move, when all her furniture was lost.
‘‘That was for the furniture and things that I had to get a loan. Winz [Work and Income] gave me a loan and I had to pay that back,’’ Rudolph said. ‘‘Then they were also charging me $3000 for the methamphetamine test. In the finish they stopped it after a long time. I didn’t have to pay that.’’
Rudolph said she still feels like her ‘‘lifetime’’ was taken away from her. Her late husband, who had dementia, was extremely confused by the move.
‘‘Every day he’d go in the bedroom, take all of his clothes out of the drawer, and pack them up, and say ‘let’s go home’.’’