11. PITA PARAONE (NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Housing
Has Housing New Zealand taken any further action to identify and remove any of its tenants who are criminal gang members in the wake of the eviction notice served at a Range View Road, Ōwairaka, address last week; if not, why not?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) Link to this
Housing New Zealand Corporation houses are peopled according to need. Like all landlords, it is required to abide by the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act. We actively manage all our tenancies and do not tolerate tenants committing criminal acts in any of our properties. However, if tenants are law-abiding, we do not have any lawful grounds on which to deny them a State house because of membership of an organisation, a religion, a political party, or any other group.
Does Housing New Zealand Corporation have any mechanism for ensuring that its tenants are law-abiding, or does it always wait until terrorised neighbours have a complaint before any action is taken?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
Housing New Zealand Corporation relies on its case managers getting around houses. But I take the member back to the case he has raised. In that particular situation Housing New Zealand Corporation was reliant on the police informing it of the situation, and, as soon as the police did that, then, as he knows, Housing New Zealand Corporation acted.
Lynne PillayHon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
As a responsible landlord, Housing New Zealand Corporation actively manages its 67,000 homes—up, I should say, from 50,000 or so just 7 years ago after we took over from National. The overwhelming majority of these tenancies are trouble-free, because, like most Kiwis, our tenants are law-abiding families that are focused on getting on with their lives. When problems arise that cannot be sorted out satisfactorily at a neighbourhood level, we use all the options available to us under the Residential Tenancies Act. In the current year we have terminated 17 of our tenancies—for example, with the assistance of bailiffs. Other tenants choose to leave before it becomes necessary to take their case formally through the tribunal.
Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. How many State houses are estimated to be inhabited by criminal gang members; if this information is not known, does the Minister not consider he owes it to high-need New Zealanders on the housing waiting list to find out this information and ensure they are not being put behind those gang members in the pecking order?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
I do not have those figures with me today. But I say to the member that this would be extraordinarily difficult to do. For example, a person may well have committed a crime in the past but now be a person who is seeking to live a good life, get on with a job, and so on. Those people would risk, of course, being caught up by a measure such as that. But I go back to the central point, which is that Housing New Zealand Corporation does not tolerate criminal behaviour in its tenancies, and it acts when it finds that.