State housing decline will leave families out in the cold

Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, July 7th, 2010 - 11 comments
Categories: families, housing, Social issues - Tags: , ,

Stuff reports that under Minister Phil Heatley, Housing NZ will manage additions of only 275 houses for each of the next two years.

Under the previous government 8000 state houses were added between 1999 and 2008.

In a recession, with household budgets stretched, state provision of high quality, affordable housing is even more important for families. It should be a priority for any government, but now more than ever.

Heatley’s inability to secure significant budget funding coupled with his acceptance of his ministry blowing $10-20m – merely on the consultation phase of a proposed new computer system – are surely bad news for the 10,000+ families still waiting to be housed.

11 comments on “State housing decline will leave families out in the cold ”

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  1. burt 1
    7 July 2010 at 8:27 pm

    Some interesting stats here;

    dbh . govt . nz : Social housing assistance.

    I’m still digesting the apparent disparity of change in waiting numbers compared to waiting times in the A-List category during the 2006-2008 period. Were housing waiting lists like hospital waiting lists during that period where waiting numbers were meaningless through constant removal from the list for reassessment?

  2. just saying 2
    7 July 2010 at 10:13 pm

    Why assume Heatley wanted to secure more funding for state housing? I’m sure he supports stripping back state support for the poorest and most vulnerable, and redirecting resources towards the ‘deserving’ rich. From National’s point of view he’s doing very well.

  3. Bunji 3
    8 July 2010 at 11:14 am

    To say nothing of the recession relieving effects of building lots of extra houses – more jobs for builders etc, great way to inject cash into an economy. But we’re used to the penny wise pound poor philosophy of National governments.

    [ Also, how have all those people managed to link to this post before it was written? By a couple of years in one case… ]

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