Coalition’s failed the homeless with lack of new homes
If this Government was to be judged only on its success in combating homelessness, it would be regarded as an abject failure.
The public housing waitlist is probably the best indication of how things stand. It reached a record of 14,496 last November, nearly triple the 5844 eligible families or individuals on the list when the Government was elected.
More than 12,000 of those queueing up for a state house are Priority A, which means they are people whose needs must be ‘‘addressed immediately’’.
These are sad figures, although it needs to be remembered that the biggest demand (about 11,000) comes from single people over the age of 25 and single people with one child. About 6000 need a singlebedroom dwelling and another 5000 need two bedrooms.
In other words the Government doesn’t need to build a lot of big houses for people with large families. The job doesn’t look so insurmountable once you realise we are talking smaller units or apartments as the main fix.
Another statistic that doesn’t flatter the Government is the number of people receiving the accommodation supplement, which helps those renting privately.
In December 2017, 291,634 people needed the supplement. Two years later the number has crept up to 319,564. Not a huge increase but still one which shows failure rather than success.
The latest announcement on emergency housing also suggests dropping the ball on housing.
The $300 million funding package, announced on Thursday, provides 1000 extra places for homeless families and individuals. That should help keep people out of motels but does not suggest much progress.
The places, said to be ready by the end of the year, are on top of 1300 transitional places and 4000 state housing places the Government claims to have created since it came into power. The 1000 extra transitional places will cost $175m. Yes, that’s $175,000 each.
A lot of the money will go to help marginal tenants cope with the private sector. For instance, about $25.6m goes to help those at risk of losing their rentals by providing budget advice, property maintenance, and mental health and addiction support.
Nearly $9m will fund a housing broker service to connect with local landlords and help more Ministry of Social Development clients secure private rental homes.
A new stipulation that people in emergency accommodation should pay 25 per cent of their income towards the cost earned a rebuke from Auckland Action Against Poverty co-ordinator Ricardo Menendez-March, who said charging people in emergency accommodation 25 per cent of their income was a ‘‘step in the wrong direction’’.
You can’t please some people. A ‘‘thank you’’ might have been nice.
More emergency accommodation won’t necessarily cover the burgeoning need. Rich countries in Europe have steadily increased the places in shelter and emergency accommodation, only to see them swamped and the demand increase.
Unlike countries such as France and Germany, New Zealand does not have a large, illegal migrant population, so homelessness should be easier to handle.
The reasons for the mushrooming public housing register are no doubt many and varied and it would be unfair to blame it all on the Government, which inherited under-investment in social housing.
At least it’s not the economy. During the Government’s term, employment has been strong and the economy has remained steady.
I suspect National’s public housing spokesman, Simon O’Connor, is at least partly right when he says the Government has scared private landlords out of the market. He mentions more onerous standards and the belief among landlords that more are on the way.
It’s clear people often avoided the public register by renting cheap and dilapidated houses.
The new rules about insulation and minimum standards make some houses uneconomical given the rent they can command, so they are sold rather than rented.
The Government’s willingness to invest a lot more money in public housing will have raised hopes and encouraged people to ensure they qualify for the list.
In essence, however, homelessness increases when housing costs are too high and they have been too high for a long time.
Thankfully there is, in theory, an easy solution to thinning out the public housing queue. That is to build as many public houses as possible in a short time.
The Government claims to have helped more than 2000 families into public housing and increased state house building ninefold with 2700 units under construction in September last year.
However, if it had not mucked around with KiwiBuild, those numbers would be looking much better.
We might quite fairly ask where all the money is coming from. It’s probably true that putting those at risk in secure housing will save on health care and police services in the long run. Giving people a home makes it easier for social services to provide the help they need.
Most people won’t mind the expense if it gets rough sleepers off city streets. Once they have places to call their own, and many will be extremely difficult to house, that blight on the inner cities should be alleviated.
But rough sleepers are the lowhanging fruit. Those living in grossly inadequate accommodation are more of a worry and it will take more than one election term for any government to fix that.
The new rules about insulation and minimum standards make some houses uneconomical to rent, so they are sold rather than rented.