Eviction will ‘rip family apart’
The Ah Kiongs lost their mother and home in the space of a week when Kāinga Ora told the family they would have to leave just days after the funeral for the family’s matriarch.
The eviction comes after the Ah Kiongs fought Kāinga Ora for the past two years over accessible modifications at the Cannons Creek house where the family have lived for 21 years.
Vaiolo Ah Kiong used a wheelchair later in life and needed a wet-floor bathroom, among other renovations, which remained unfinished at her death.
After the death of Vaiolo – whose name was on the lease – the family was given 28 days’ notice by Kāinga Ora which requested, in writing, that they leave the house by April 12. The Ah Kiongs say they were told there were other families with urgent housing and accessibility needs.
‘‘We understand that we don’t need the accessible bathroom, but they didn’t need to kick us out a week after Mum passed,’’ Frances Ah Kiong said.
‘‘And then the whole ordeal over the last two years, fighting with them for the bathroom, then that to be the reason they kick us out, and she didn’t even get to use the bathroom.’’
The weeks following the funeral have been a rollercoaster for the Ah Kiongs, with a series of bumbled messages and broken promises adding to their grief.
Kāinga Ora first told Frances the family needed to vacate the house by April 5. However, the Ministry of Social Development contradicted that ruling, telling Frances they would be able to stay.
The ministry later backed down and Kāinga Ora revised the leaving date to April 12. Kāinga Ora told Frances it would find a three-bedroom house for herself and her children but not her extended family, who instead ‘‘needed to find their own place’’.
Days later the agency told her that search was yet to begin, as her application was incomplete – which the ministry later admitted was due to ‘‘a technical glitch’’ at its end.
‘‘It is really ugly, actually,’’ Frances said. ‘‘I don’t know why this is the normal process and why they don’t talk to each other. And in the meantime I’m stressed out that we’re not gonna have a house, and that they’re going to rip our whole family apart.’’
Kāinga Ora Wellington regional director Greg Groufsky said the agency had treated the family with ‘‘empathy and understanding’’ throughout the process, and never evicted them.
Neither Frances, nor the other family members, were on the social housing register, and needed to have their eligibility assessed by the ministry first, he said.
‘‘The family is still – and will continue – to live in the home, while we work with them to find a more suitable home, based on a timeframe that works for them,’’ Groufsky said.
A letter addressed to Frances tells a different story, stating the family must leave the house within 28 days.
‘‘Please make sure yourself, and anyone else living at the premises, vacates by April 12,’’ it reads.
Groufsky said the agency was legally required to send that letter, and wanted to make the Ah Kiongs aware of the relevant legislation after they ‘‘indicated they did not want to leave’’.
The agency had since offered Frances a different Cannons Creek house – which she had declined – and would show her ‘‘an additional two properties’’ soon.
Frances confirmed she was offered a house but ‘‘didn’t believe it was suitable’’ for her family.
She thought the timing of the offer was convenient, coming two days after Stuff contacted Kāinga Ora.
And she was frustrated that the agency downplayed its earlier eviction threat.
‘‘It highlights how we can’t trust them. They just tell lies all the time. Why can’t they just own up to it, and apologise?’’
Disability advocate Huhana Hickey says similar situations have been playing out for years. She was part of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, which recommended more compassion be shown by the ministry towards bereaved families.
‘‘We were told that would all change,’’ Hickey said. ‘‘They have to show compassion, in circumstances like these, because a family cannot just uproot within a week of a parent dying.’’
Groufsky was adamant that advice had been taken on board, with ‘‘a joint process developed between MSD and Kāinga Ora’’ when families faced hardship. For some families, the minimum period of 21 days would be sufficient – for others it might take ‘‘a few months’’, he said.
Housing Action Porirua spokeswoman Lorna Kanavatoa said asking the family to splinter into smaller groups was ‘‘basically racist’’, and didn’t recognise cultures for whom multigenerational households were common.
‘‘Once you move one of them, the whole family dynamic and community dissipates,’’ she said.
Now, the family just wanted to stay at the house while they mourned ‘‘the biggest loss of our lives’’, Frances said.