The Nation did good work on the housing crisis yesterday:
Is the Government doing enough on housing? (video)
Boarding house horrors (video)
There’s a companion writeup on Newshub:
Rogue landlords on the taxpayers’ payroll
There are growing calls for a tighter controls around boarding houses.
The housing shortage means they’re being relied on for accommodation more heavily by more people, but landlords are not required to register their boarding houses – despite taxpayer money going into them.
Experts say it’s allowing rogue landlords to exploit vulnerable people, with some living in brutal deprivation.
…
Te Puea Marae opened its doors last year to people needing temporary accomodation. That offer ended in September, but chair Hurimoana Dennis says people keep coming.“The sad thing is our leaders have known about this problem since 2010. Quite explicit papers have gone up to Cabinet. It was very clear – be careful, this is what’s coming.” [my emphasis]
Major Campbell Roberts of the Salvation Army says it’s more common than many people think.
“There are many situations that people are in that really, you’re horrified by what the situation is – but the inability to do something about it is what’s really hurting at the moment.”
Enforcement isn’t often carried out because of the consequences.
“If you’ve got 30, 40, 50 people in a boarding house and you close it, where do you put them?” he asks. “We’ve let this thing develop into a crisis situation.”
In the Sunday Star Times last week:
18-month-old Julia, the innocent face of modern NZ’s brutal, archaic boarding houses
Greed, desperation, and squalor – life in illegal boarding houses
And last year:
‘Tents and warehouses’ suggested for homeless
Would-be tenants seek to live in cars on driveways to beat Auckland rents
This is the Brighter Future that Bill English warned of in 2010:
PM spoke of housing crisis in 2010 – Sallies
Prime Minister Bill English said privately seven years ago a housing crisis was looming in Auckland, a senior Salvation Army official says.
Major Campbell Roberts said in 2010, Mr English – then finance minister – told him he feared a crisis on the horizon.
But as Prime Minister, Mr English has consistently said in public there is no housing crisis. …
Great chap Bill English. Compassionate conservative I hear.
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