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Mother-of-two Mandy pays $375 a week for the one-bedroom caravan park cabin she shares with her two children aged 10 and 12.
They moved to Western Park Village in Ranui, west Auckland, at Christmas as a last resort.
“I hate it here,” she said. “I want to move out, I want my own place. There’s nowhere for our kids to play.”
She had returned to Auckland after living in Whangarei caring for her sick mother but struggled with high rents and a lack of suitable housing.
She said there was nothing else available for her to move into, whereas the park didn’t require a bond and the first week’s rent was free.
She said hers is not the only family crammed into these one-bedroom boxes. “There’s kids in just about every unit in this place, and there’s quite a few units,” she said.
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett says a caravan park in Ranui in west Auckland where some families stay in one-bedroom cabins is up for sale and has hinted the Government may play a part in what happens to it.
“It has really been a problem. He has had it up for sale so there are, I believe, negotiations going on locally that Government is having some involvement with, so we’ll see where that ends up.”
“There’s absolutely no way that people living in garages, people living in cars, people living in overcrowded situations and in caravan parks that are, at times, are quite poorly run is by any means suitable,” Bennett said.
Statistics New Zealand defines homelessness as not having shelter, being in temporary accommodation, uninhabitable homes or sharing accommodation without privacy and personal space.
The Salvation Army and the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust say Aucklanders who are struggling to find a place to live are increasingly resorting to living in urban camping grounds and caravan parks.
Waitakere Housing Call to Action’s Spotlight on Housing awareness week convener Lee Hickey says that at the moment there’s a lot of emphasis on home ownership and very little on the 15,000 people in Auckland who are severely deprived of housing.
Hickey says the Henderson Massey Local Board area has the highest Housing New Zealand waiting list in Auckland.
West Auckland’s Monte Cecilia Housing Trust social worker Louise Guy says the average three bedroom rental property out west costs $440 a week – that’s $146 a tenant and many individuals and families struggle to afford rent.
‘‘A shortage of houses and rising prices has resulted in a sharp increase in rents.
‘‘Many people have little left to live on after rent is paid,’’ she says.
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