The Catholic housing trust has been flooded with messages since Smith announced his resignation last month.

It's clear he'll be missed. Big time.

Smith is modest about his involvement with the Trust.

"Empowering the disempowered, housing the homeless and feeding the hungry - surely that's what we should do anyway," he says.

"It just represents our calling as individuals and as members of the Church here on earth."

He says he's loved seeing people gain hope when only experiencing hopelessness, to see whanau once disempowered now empowered to stand tall in their faith, culture and gender.

While he's quiet about his own achievements, he's proud of the Trust's progress.

It's been a hard job, but the rewards so far have been worth the effort.

"It's been wonderful to see unemployed people gain employment, further their education, gain diplomas and degrees, start businesses and become self-sustainable" he says.

"There's also been the occasional whanau who've progressed far enough to buy their own home. All those rewards have kept me going!"

Smith also mentions another major achievement involving a substantial building project.

This involved collaborating with the government to build 31 apartments and Monte's first headquarters - a small office facility.

They will be of lasting use for many years, he says.

"Generations to come will benefit from this work by gaining employment or having a safe, warm, dry home."

Managing homelessness and poverty is everyone's responsibility

Monte Cecilia's outgoing CEO says with growing homelessness and poverty in New Zealand there's too much for one group to try to fix it alone.

"The government cannot resolve this crisis on their own, and nor should they.

"We need partnerships. Collaboration and unity are critical factors. We need to work on this because homelessness and poverty are unacceptable in New Zealand. We all need to get involved!

"Desmond Tutu said 'Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world'."

Messages following Smith's resignation show much he is valued and will be missed.

• "Was saddened to read this, I just wanted to thank you
• "... for being real and talking to me straight all the time ...
• "... for your leadership ... and leading with your heart
• " You and your work have made a huge positive impact
• "I have always valued your perspective, comradeship and support...
• " ... for being such a strong advocate for those without a home and for those living in poverty
• " Your passion and compassion along with your acumen is testimony to you as a person and the Gospel: "Truly I tell you, just as you did to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me"
• "... it is a lonely place being a voice for social justice. Thank you for the times you have publicly ... spoken truthfully as your mind and heart direct
• "I ... admire your giving voice to the whanau we all serve..."

Source

• Supplied

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that while rising living costs were impacting, she wouldn't describe the situation as a crisis.

However, the Catholic Housing Trust CEO with first-hand real-life experience of hardship is pushing back on statements by the Prime Minister.

"From Monte Cecilia's perspective, we're working with hundreds of families every day who were already struggling to keep a roof over their children's heads and food in their bellies, who are now being pushed well past the line.

"If that's not a crisis, I don't know what you'd call it.

"Between rent, food, fuel and other basic necessities, families are expected somehow to find thousands of dollars extra a year to cover the rising costs.

"That's a tough blow for those of us who are doing ok, but for families who were already struggling, it's crushing."

Monte Cecilia has had to stop taking referrals earlier in the year after its waitlist grew to almost 400 families and the government restricted its ability to contract new homes from landlords.

Many New Zealanders agree with Smith.

On Tuesday a mum of five told Newshub AM she's struggling after her family's bills increased by $7000 in the past year.

One Reddit user said Ardern was "simply ignoring facts," while another called it a "poor take" given food, petrol, rent and house prices were "skyrocketing."

The cost of living has skyrocketed with Kiwis spending on average an extra $4000 to $5000 in the past 12 months on basics such as food, rent and fuel. The highest single item in the increase is fuel, with an extra $678 a year at the pump on average.

Speaking to Newshub's AM, Ardern said that despite the escalating fuel cost, she wouldn't be cutting tax on petrol.

"What we're seeing right now is the impact of Covid and the recovery and of Ukraine," Ardern said. "The increase we've seen at the pump, it's been significant. It has not come from excise [tax], it has not come from government."

AM host Ryan Bridge pushed Ardern to admit that if the government cut taxes on petrol, people could be paying half as much at the pump. However, Ardern replied: "If you remove excise, which every government has used, you basically remove your ability to maintain roads and roading projects," she said.

Bernie Smith concluded, "It doesn't matter that the cause is global because this isn't about handing out blame - what matters is what we're doing to help our most vulnerable families.

"Prime Minister Ardern has said that she expects things to improve over the course of the year and I hope she's right, I really do, but families are being forced into poverty right now.

"We can't afford to sit still and hope the situation improves - we need to act."

Sources

• Monte Cecilia Housing Trust Press Release
• NewsHub
• The Spinoff
• Otago Daily Times

What you may not have heard about is the recent UMR poll in February showing seven in 10 New Zealanders support this measure.

That number came as a bit of a shock to me.

It's not often you get 70 per cent of people behind… well, almost anything really.

So why the overwhelming support?

I certainly know why I support it - the team at Monte Cecilia are at the coalface of New Zealand's poverty issues every day.

We encounter parents afraid to send their children to school because they can't afford to give them lunches and we meet with single mothers living in the garages of overcrowded houses with no way to self-isolate in the event of another Covid outbreak.

But these are stories of quiet desperation which are seldom told in the news.

These problems have become so widespread and so obvious that they're impossible to ignore.

But I also think if there has been one indisputable benefit of Covid to balance the terrible cost it has extracted, it's that it showed us how powerful we were when we came together as a team of five million.

The plight of the poor in New Zealand is certainly a large-scale problem and it's getting worse.

In more than 40 years of working in this sector, I don't remember ever seeing this level of unmet need.

A few years ago, Monte Cecilia staff would field 10 to 15 calls a week from families in need, over the past year that number has jumped to 20 to 30 a day.

It illustrates the story of New Zealand's K-shaped Covid recovery: the well-off have bounced back by remote working and increasing their savings, while those on low incomes have faced increased job instability and rising rental prices.

We're seeing people living in two different worlds in New Zealand, and Covid has only exacerbated this trend.

Current levels of income support simply aren't enough and they're becoming even more insufficient as time goes on.

For reasons that utterly elude me, the poor seem to be hit the hardest by inflation, with the highest rental price increases last year being in South Auckland (averaging 3.5 per cent) according to the Barfoot and Thompson Rental Report for 2020.

In that report, the average rental for an Auckland three-bedroom house hit $595 a week at the start of 2021.

If you're working full time on minimum wage with 3 per cent KiwiSaver and no student loan, you'll be earning just $653 after tax.

How in the world is anyone supposed to better their own life under those circumstances?

Where can they find the resources to do additional study?

How are they supposed to afford school uniforms and stationery for their children's schooling while also somehow putting food on the table and keeping the lights on?

The Government desperately needs to apply the same kind of common sense, no-nonsense approach it did during our battle with Covid, instead of providing just enough support for the problem to limp on.

We need to ensure that everyone, whether they are working, caring for children, living with a disability or illness, studying, or have lost their jobs before or because of Covid-19 has a liveable income, and we need to do it now.

There is a Budget approaching on May 20.

This is the Government's chance to have a transformational impact on generations of New Zealanders. I hope they take it.

• Bernie Smith is the CEO of the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust.
• First published in The Weekend Herald. Republished with permission.

"We're always happy to see those arrows going in the right direction and I think the government is to be commended for what they had accomplished up to that point," Smith says.

"But those numbers no longer reflect the situation on the ground - the economic fallout from Covid hit New Zealand's low-income families incredibly hard and we've seen the level of need in our communities skyrocket. We went from getting 10-15 calls a week to 20-30 a day."

"Rising living costs, particularly rents, have combined with job instability to create really difficult situations for a lot of families. Stats NZ's data shows that inflation has been three-times higher for beneficiaries and where there has been wage growth it hasn't been evenly shared with lower income groups."

This is also the second year Stats NZ has produced child poverty statistics for different ethnic groups, making it possible to see how poverty rates for different groups have changed over time.

"The decision to track stats by ethnic group has produced some really confronting results. The degree to which child poverty disproportionately affects Maori and Pacific Island families has made for sobering reading, and Covid has only added fuel to the fire."

In the year ended June 2020, 19 percent of Maori children and 25.4 percent of Pacific children lived in households that reported going without six or more of the 17 basic needs. These rates compared with 11 percent for all New Zealand children.

"Increased government support for low-income families is desperately needed if we're going to confront the growing inequality in our society. That much is clear, but doing so is actually a position with a lot of public support," Smith said.

A recent poll commissioned by a super-group of NGOs (including Monte Cecilia) showed seven out of ten (69%) of New Zealanders agree ‘the Government should increase income support for those on low incomes and not in paid work'.

"Covid has caused a lot of damage across the world but it also showed New Zealanders that we're capable of incredible things when we work together.

"This problem is solvable and the public is overwhelmingly behind the government taking bold action to do so," Smith says.

Source

• Monte-Cecilia Housing Trust

Monte Cecilia Housing Trust chief executive officer Bernie Smith puts the increased demand down to reduced working hours and increasing unemployment.

Smith told NZ Catholic the Catholic housing trust received 10-15 inquiries a day during the second Auckland lockdown, however, 12 months ago they received 15 enquiries a week.

Smith's statistics mirror figures released by the Ministry of Social Development showing the number of applicants on the Housing Register was 18,520 as of June 30, an increase of 50.4 per cent as against the same time last year.

Smith says the Trust is waiting with "bated breath" to see what will happen when the wage subsidy comes off.

He says the Trust needs 600 houses in the next 12 months.

The demand for housing is wider than Auckland and general concern is rising with the COVID-19 rent freeze due to be lifted on Friday.

Renters United says tenants are already being told their costs will go up and president of the organisation Robert Whitaker says it's going to make life "really hard" for renters.

The advocacy group for tenants want the Government to limit rent increases to no more than inflation.

"For those on low incomes, it forces impossible choices between paying the bills, feeding themselves and their family, and losing their home. With the looming recession caused by COVID-19, renters face even greater hardship."

However, NZ Property Investors Federation executive officer Sharon Cullwick says it's effectively been eight months since landlords have been able to activate rent increases and some catch-up was inevitable.

"In total, that's quite a long time to go without any increase in rent. So it won't be surprising to see may landlords activating rent rises after the 26th."

The housing markets in Wellington, Rotorua, Hawkes Bay, Queenstown and Dunedin are also under considerable pressure.

The average price for property in the Capital is now $689,000, while worsening housing markets in Rotorua and Queenstown means many people who hadn't had to rely on community support were seeking it.

Prior to the 2017 General Election, some 600 people joined Bishop Justin Duckworth, Anglican bishop of Wellington, assistant Anglican bishop of Wellington, Eleanor Sanderson, and Cardinal Dew at a housing forum in the Anglican Cathedral of St Paul.

While Dew reminded those present that on a global scale, New Zealand had the worst rate of homelessness in the OECD - according to a Yale University study, Duckworth said the 2017 housing crisis was the greatest issue facing New Zealand.

Duckworth asked if the politicians actually cared.

"We're talking about probably the issue that in the polls is the greatest issue facing New Zealanders. For me, this is no longer about housing, it's just simply about do you (politicians) care? Do you actually care?", Duckworth asked.

Sources

• Newshub
• NZ Catholic
• Good Returns
• NZ Advisor
• ODT
• CathNews