‘Unprecedented’ demand for accommodation
Brian Eriksen is frustrated and heavy-hearted.
The Community Housing Action Taranaki (CHAT) chairman has desperate families needing accommodation, and he’s doing what he can to keep them together.
But the same rental crisis that has plagued the region for the past year continues, and now its compounded by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘‘I’ve got one woman, who works, and she’s got three children. But they’re all spread out, staying with other family,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s all she can do at the moment to survive. It would be nice to get them back together.’’
There is of lack of available and affordable housing and families who can’t afford high-end rent prices have nowhere to go, he said.
Property managers agree the region’s rental market was still dire. It had been made worse by property owners returning from overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And the expectation that the market would be flooded with former Airbnb properties as the country’s tourism industry comes to a standstill, has just not happened.
Even if that was to happen, Eriksen said those vacation properties would be out of reach for low-income renters.
CHAT has two houses in New Plymouth and one in Waitara. The organisation offers support to people who are in need of accommodation, ideally for a maximum of six weeks.
Enquiries into the emergency homes have increased in the past year and Eriksen has a short waiting list of families.
People are staying for as long as three to four months because they have nowhere else to go.
‘‘It’s frustrating because there is just nothing we can do,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re not going to throw them out on the street.’’
Families are otherwise doubling up in houses, living in sheds and cramming into small units just to put a roof over their heads, he said.
‘‘There’s got to be a better affordable way so that people can get into these houses and afford to be able to pay them and bring up their children and have some sort of life.’’
Bayley’s property manager Kellie Hodson last week had more than 50 applications for one New Plymouth home.
‘‘There’s just not enough properties,’’ she said.
On Friday, there were 37 rentals across the region listed on Trade Me for $400 and under – 34 in the New Plymouth District and three in South Taranaki.
In total, there were 93 properties advertised for rent in the New Plymouth District, five in South Taranaki, and none in Stratford.
Hodson said overseas-living property owners were returning due to the pandemic, which would effectively strike more homes from the market.
Grant Carter, branch general manager of Quinovic New Plymouth, anticipated the rental market would become swamped with Airbnb properties.
But so far he’s only seen one converted to a rental.
‘‘It just hasn’t happened.’’ He said the property shortage had worsened in the past year; and he currently didn’t have any properties listed.
‘‘The demand has been unprecedented,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s always a level of churn going on with people coming and going, but we’re just not in that situation. People are just staying put,’’ he said.