Stand Up for Housing: Protest today in Aotea Square

Written By: - Date published: 6:38 pm, September 23rd, 2016 - 45 comments
Categories: class war, housing, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags: , , ,

beggar homeless

Young people, union members, and other Aucklanders will meet in Aotea Square tomorrow today to make some noise about the devastating Auckland housing crisis.

Stand Up Youth Union Movement and Unions Auckland are hosting the Monopoly-themed event, which will highlight the damaging effects of the crisis and call on local and central government to do a lot more to fix the housing market.

Spokesperson Hamish Hutchinson says that the crisis is one of the country’s biggest problems.

“The average Auckland house price is now over a million dollars, and that’s totally out of reach for most,” Hamish says.

“If you don’t own a home yet, you’ve essentially been locked out of homeownership in Auckland for life. Housing should be a human right, and instead it’s been left to investors and speculators to abuse for private gain.

“With the current rate of house price inflation, the amount needed just for a deposit is growing faster than what the vast majority of people can save.

“For young people today, it’s like starting a game of Monopoly without even enough cash to even buy the very cheapest property on the board. Meanwhile, those who played before us still hold all the cards.

“We’re assembling [today] to express a deep anger for being cheated off the board. It’s time to change the rules of the game,” Hamish says.

Stand Up for Housing Rights action
When – Saturday 24 September, 1-2pm
Where – Aotea Square, Queen St, Auckland

45 comments on “Stand Up for Housing: Protest today in Aotea Square ”

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  5. Manuka AOR 5
    23 September 2016 at 8:45 pm

    There are 40 000 homeless in New Zealand.

    Meanwhile, there could be around 33,300+ Auckland houses that are empty – the “Ghost homes” (July article; 2013 census): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11677989

    • Leftie 5.1
      23 September 2016 at 10:55 pm

      Outrageous. And how many ghost houses are sitting empty around the country as well? There are houses, but they are not for people to live in. That’s the stark reality, and it’s just obscene.

  6. Red 6
    23 September 2016 at 10:47 pm

    There are 4 million 460 thousand New Zealanders not homeless just to cheer you up, also the definition of homeless is a bit miss leading, there is nothing like 40000people living on the street. irrespective work yourselves up into a frenzy tomorrow if you feel it helps, meanwhile the government will get on sorting out a complicated problem

    • Pat 6.1
      23 September 2016 at 10:55 pm

      there are 173 million people in Nigeria and an estimated 7-10,000 active members of Boko Haram….no problem there either.

    • Leftie 6.2
      23 September 2016 at 11:04 pm

      Change your name to Blue, you’re giving Red a bad name, heartless one. It’s the intentionally incompetent National government that has made it a CRISIS to prop up and mask a weak and fragile economy teetering on collapse, and so the best thing to do to with trouble makers like the Nats, is to kick them out asap.

    • mauī 6.3
      23 September 2016 at 11:08 pm

      Yada, yada, yada there is no poverty in nz, what a douche.

    • Rae 6.4
      24 September 2016 at 8:03 am

      Are you one of these people who think that unless you are sleeping outdoors somewhere in a cardboard box, then you don’t qualify as homeless?
      If you are, then I put it to you that by definition of the word “home” and the “belonging to” nature of it, that you can actually count every single renter who would rather buy than rent, would rather have somewhere to actually call HOME, that NZ’s homeless numbers are far, far higher than we already fess up to.

      • Red 6.4.1
        24 September 2016 at 10:49 am

        ok so your homeless if your renting but you want to own your own home , likewise there are millions of boatless , Ferarriless ……..

        • Rae 6.4.1.1
          24 September 2016 at 3:25 pm

          Bit of a difference between something utterly necessary and something utterly not. That ferrari thing is getting very old and boring and means nothing in this argument/

    • Michelle 6.5
      26 September 2016 at 10:25 am

      just because we cant see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there Red the Tories aren’t sorting out the problem they created Red wise up you are way of the eight ball

  7. BM 7
    24 September 2016 at 8:17 am

    This is nothing more than a CTU organised anti government event.

    • Pat 7.1
      24 September 2016 at 8:34 am

      you missed the key word BM…..a CTU organised “justified” anti government event

      • BM 7.1.1
        24 September 2016 at 8:43 am

        It’s nothing more than manufactured outrage.

        Take out the union element and you could count the amount of protesters on your left hand.

        Out of curiosity do union employees get paid to attend these “protests”? or this unpaid work?, purely “voluntary”

        • Pat 7.1.1.1
          24 September 2016 at 8:51 am

          think it may be pressing the bounds of credulity to suggest the outrage is manufactured.

          less than five huh?… whats the opposite of hyperbole?

          are union employees paid, no idea…are MPs? Was Nick Smith being paid when he drove his tractor up Parliaments steps?

    • jcuknz 7.2
      24 September 2016 at 8:36 am

      You could be correct there BM but fully deserved result of their incompetence on this subject … however well other sectors are doing.

    • vto 7.3
      24 September 2016 at 8:59 am

      Unions are highly respected and valuable organisations which look out for the workers and those who struggle.

      Without them you would still be dying in a coal mine..

      .. doh,… pike river after the union-busting

      open up your thinking BM

    • RedLogix 7.4
      25 September 2016 at 4:46 pm

      @BM

      I’ve often given you the benefit of the doubt around here. But this time you abuse it.

      Let me explain your mistake. It’s quite a common one, so I’m not going to beat you up over it. Just because you cannot see something, does not mean it does not exist. It simply means you haven’t seen it yet.

      The vast majority of homeless people in this country are not sleeping rough under bridges or in graveyards. And even then they tend to be discrete and most keep out of the public eye. So you don’t see them much.

      Which does not mean they do not exist. They are just out of your sight in damp garages and sheds, huddled in shitty old caravans, doubled or tripled up in cramped old houses, stuck in motels racking up WINZ debt, or in some rural areas still in tin sheds with no power or running water.

      In cold wet climate like NZ’s a complete lack of shelter is rare. Most people could not survive our winters completely in the open. What defines ‘homelessness’ in a developed country is the lack of a housing that also qualifies as a ‘home’. By this I mean a house that is warm, dry, has power and water, decent bathrooms and toilets, a bedroom for each older child and privacy for the adults. Plus a kitchen where meals can be safely prepared. This would be the bare minimum for a house to qualify as a home.

      At least 40,000 of your fellow citizens cannot even reach this standard of housing.

      Over and above this, if you want to throw in some reasonable security of tenancy then even larger numbers of NZ’ers probably qualify as insecurely housed. And certainly many never reach the point where the house they live in ever feels like a ‘home’ to them.

      And none of this is actually caused by a shortage of actual dwellings, not when so many lie empty. So what is in this for you BM? What’s your skin in the game here that would have you pretend so heartily that none of this is happening?

      • BM 7.4.1
        25 September 2016 at 7:54 pm

        I don’t believe Labour and the unions to be particularity genuine in their concern for the less well off.

        After observing their actions over the last 5-6 years I believe their only interest in the poor is that they may be able to use them as a tool to oust National and gain power.

        Their concern starts and ends with that.

        • McGrath 7.4.1.1
          25 September 2016 at 8:04 pm

          Governments (both left and right) don’t truely care about the poor. If they did, the issue of poverty would have long been solved.

        • RedLogix 7.4.1.2
          25 September 2016 at 8:15 pm

          Well I’ll take that reply at face value BM.

          If you can accept that homelessness in this country is real, then I’ll grant you that Labour have yet to demonstrate their bone fides on this issue. Certainly the Fifth Labour govt did not tackle the issue head-on, and it’s only very recently when it’s gotten much worse under this govt have they seen it as an issue worth running with.

          Probably because the market is now so dysfunctional that there are many, many more New Zealanders who once imagined themselves middle class, are suddenly realising they too are only just one or two bits of bad luck away from being homeless themselves.

          Or what McGrath said. Poverty isn’t all that hard to fix if you want to.

          • BM 7.4.1.2.1
            25 September 2016 at 8:47 pm

            Do you honestly believe the situation will change dramatically if the left gain power?, I don’t.

            The situation we’re currently in has been decades in the making, this is not a quick fix issue, it will take a long time to fix and both political sides are to blame.

            Even though they were a bit slow getting going National are taking steps to try and rectify the issue, as you know a globally linked country such as NZ can’t wave a magical wand and modify the current environment without serious consequences

            So having soft handed candyarses likes Phil Twyford, who knows what the situation is, wanking on endlessly about National not doing anything about the homeless and the price of housing in disingenuous in the extreme.

  8. jcuknz 8
    24 September 2016 at 8:28 am

    The pathetic National “action’ was outlined recently and intends building for sale or rent a few more houses than were on the site when a solution … a slow process designed to not crash the market but to gradually bring prices down … is to return to the original Labour policy of building for rent but this time organsising reasonable length in terms of security of tenure and rent so that people have the choice of buying cars etc or saving deposits.
    I read a Listener article on how Singapore stopped the problem from arising in the first place.
    The National ‘do little too late’ is biting it in its bum one hopes.
    The primary job for any government is to house its population properly apart from the handful of people choosing to live rough. Since Labour started the rot during the Clark term it is something for them to take note of as well.

  9. jcuknz 9
    24 September 2016 at 8:34 am

    The reason I started on my target of home ownership was because the last place I rented was bleeding me from a low income…. some times as much as 50% depending on my income from sales. So a reasonable rent is important.

  10. rsbandit 10
    24 September 2016 at 5:24 pm

    It is time Labour stood up for these people. The shame.

    They should immediately adopt a policy whereby everyone who wants a house has one. Start a massive state house building project and increase taxes on everyone above 50K to 80% to pay for it.

    Enough is enough.

    • Red 10.1
      24 September 2016 at 6:21 pm

      Yep that will work, no downside, wonder why no one thought of that before, I nominate a Nobel prize for economics to rsbandit.

  11. Stephanie Rodgers 11
    24 September 2016 at 8:51 pm

    The rally was hugely empowering for the people attending – for some it was their first public demonstration and despite the Auckland drizzle we had some fun and made a hell of a racket!

    Thanks heaps to Jacinda Ardern and Barry Coates for coming along to add their voices, too. 😀

    • Chuck 11.1
      25 September 2016 at 4:30 pm

      “The rally was hugely empowering for the people attending”

      No doubt, good on them for getting out and giving it a go.

      Yes it was a little drizzly yesterday…bit still only 100 or so protesters, and according to Lab/Greens we are in the middle of a crisis or 2?

  12. Red 12
    24 September 2016 at 11:05 pm

    100 people ? Was that correct as reported by one news

  13. righty right 13
    25 September 2016 at 12:59 pm

    i cant wait to housing market blows up so we can get revenge on the debtors “well you borrowed the money nobody made you ,you need to take responsibility for your own debts. you want a bailout well no you see its the moral hazard but there options for you wrap around bankruptcy and you are lucky there nice park bench for you. no more nice john key for you indebted scum

    oh the squalling is going to be loud my kids my home my life style welcome to the precrriot white trailer park trash

  14. Red 14
    25 September 2016 at 4:12 pm

    Unfortunately aint going to happen to degree you gleefully hope for, NZ housing situation is not the US, it may fall but not massively Your comment reminds me of the glee many had on this site anticipating the dairy sector collapse , massive production coming on line in the US Russia China South America , huge number of farm mortgage sales just around the corner and banks about to go to the wall. if your only hope for your Political preference is that your country and fellow kiwis suffers a crisis, it’s pretty sad

  15. righty right 15
    25 September 2016 at 7:07 pm

    if they used there homes as atms and borrowed beyond there means on foolish speculation they deserve no mercy the bus should flatten them and an opportunity to profit from there fiscal demise is just to tempting to miss
    the whole idea of robing some middle class john key voting bankrupt gives me orgasmic excitement

  16. righty right 16
    25 September 2016 at 7:20 pm

    i must admit i loved it when dairy price collapsed fuck the farmers

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