10. MOANA MACKEY (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Housing
Does he believe all New Zealanders should have access to appropriate and affordable housing?
Hon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Housing) Link to this
Yes, and the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders are able to source and sustain their own housing arrangements. For those who need additional support, we are committed to helping them. Budget 2011 contained $1.85 billion for 350,000 households who are provided with the income-related rent subsidy in State houses or the accommodation supplement for those in private rentals and those with mortgages. This is an increase of $444 million, or 32 percent, above the Labour Government’s 2008 Budget.
Is he confident that there is enough appropriate and affordable accommodation available for the 5,000 people who have been told they are no longer eligible for a Housing New Zealand Corporation home, and for the many thousands more who will have their tenancies terminated if National wins the election?
All people who were on the waiting list, from A through to D, on 1 July are still eligible for a State house—we gave them that certainty. It is those who come on to the housing needs register from 1 July and who are C and D applicants who will not be eligible for a State house. I think the member should get her facts right before promoting such scaremongering.
Why is he taking a one-size-fits-all, punitive approach that will achieve nothing other than cause major uncertainty for every family in State housing, instead of letting Housing New Zealand Corporation continue to work with tenants on a case by case basis and move people on when appropriate, given that the actual problem is a lack of affordable housing options and not fictitious millionaire Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants?
The problem is that historically no Government has moved anyone on from State houses. That is why we have cases where one person is living in a four-bedroom house, where five or six people in a family are living in a garage—particularly during the previous Labour Government—and where some people in State houses earn $80,000, $90,000, or $100,000 a year while others struggle on the waiting list. We will address that problem. We will be housing the people most in need.
When will his Government reveal any kind of plan to deal with the actual reasons that families cannot access appropriate and affordable housing, which are a stagnant economy, rising unemployment, massive cost of living increases, and a desperate ever-worsening shortage of housing supply, which has driven up rents in the private sector, instead of scapegoating poor and struggling families and blaming them for the fact that they cannot find somewhere to live?