Need for homes soars as winter nears
Wainuiomata mother-of-three Rebecca knows how hard it is to be a number on the everincreasing waiting list for social housing.
For the past month she has slept in her car, which has now broken down, while her children - all aged under 8 - were staying with their grandparents.
Rebecca, who did not want her last name used, was on the waiting list for a Housing NZ home and had applied for about a dozen private rentals in the area.
But with 30 to 50 people turning up for viewings, she has not stood a chance against childless couples, many of whom are from Wellington city.
New figures show more than 1000 people from across the Wellington region are heading into winter on the rapidly-growing waiting list for social housing as some hunker down in garages, cars and tents.
Nationally, the number of households on the list has skyrocketed to 7890 – an increase of 26 per cent, which Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford says is the biggest in four years.
In just three months the Wellington list, which includes Ka¯piti, Porirua and Hutt Valley, has leapt by 200.
Between March 2015 and March 2018, the number of people on the social housing wait list across Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Ka¯piti swelled from 236 to 1039.
Hutt Valley-based Labour MP Ginny Andersen said the problem in Lower Hutt, where the numbers soared by 512 per cent from 57 to 349, was exacerbated by the removal of social housing in areas such as Epuni and Pomare.
The previous National government had been too slow to build new state houses, she said.
That put more pressure on the private rental market which, in places such as Wainuiomata, was already bloated as Wellingtonians were forced out of the capital by rising rents.
She knew of people sleeping in tents, cars, garages and churches as they sat on state home waiting lists.
She also knew of others whose need was not deemed great enough to even get on the waiting list.
At least 150 new KiwiBuild homes were being built in the Hutt Valley suburb of Epuni, which would take some pressure off, Andersen said.
Scott Gallacher, from the Ministry of Social Development, said nobody should be living in a car, garage or tent, and the Government, via the Ministry, was helping.
This included a $100 million package to tackle homelessness and support people in urgent need this winter.
National’s social housing spokesman Simon O’Connor said his Government had invested strongly in social housing and tried hard to find people who needed help. It also increased the accommodation supplement, he said
‘‘I would encourage the government to actually get on with building the extra houses they talk of, be up front on what they actually cost ... and how they are going to prioritise those in need.’’
Last week, Twyford promised ‘‘bold action to fix the national housing crisis created over the past decade’’.
In last week’s Budget, the Government committed to building at least 6400 new state and social homes over the next four years.