Key’s “War on P” is going so swimmingly well that there’s a lot of it about. But in this context, is it just being used as an excuse? – Methamphetamine blamed for empty Housing New Zealand houses
Methamphetamine is keeping people out of state homes, says Housing New Zealand.
Several vacant HNZ properties are empty because they have been contaminated with the drug, also known as P, the corporation says.
It is hitting back at criticism from Napier City councillor Maxine Boag, who said a lack of state houses had left vulnerable families homeless with many having to resort to motel units for a place to stay.
The problem is thas – Housing NZ ignored warnings over meth evictions
Housing New Zealand has ignored repeated warnings from senior government officials that it is misusing methamphetamine contamination guidelines to evict its tenants.
The Ministry of Health has repeatedly told Housing New Zealand that its methamphetamine guidelines were to be applied only for the clean up of former meth labs, and were not intended to monitor homes where the drug has been smoked.
Yet hundreds of tenants have been evicted from their state homes, after Housing New Zealand detected tiny traces of methamphetamine in them, and are often made to pay tens of thousands of dollars in clean up fees.
The ministry has just published new guidelines saying meth can be found at three to four times higher than the level being used as a reason to evict tenants.
Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said Housing New Zealand had caused a huge amount of harm by knowingly misusing the guidelines.
“Housing New Zealand have evicted people out of HNZ homes, out of social housing, they have blacklisted these tenants for 12 months and they knew these guidelines were wrong,” Mr Bell said.
“What do they do with the tenants that they’ve evicted, what do they do with the tenants who have been blacklisted, what do they do with the tenants who have been given $20,000 -$40,000 clean up bills?
“What are Housing New Zealand now going to do?”
Excellent reporting from RNZ. Housing NZ has a lot of explaining to do.
(The Ministry of Health guidelines are here.)
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