Hundreds of homeless families in Victoria, Australia, who have been staying in state-funded hotels during lockdowns will be found a permanent place to live. Housing Minister Richard Wynne says the state government’s $66-million investment will go towards supporting 250 families, including 400 children. They will be able to stay in hotels after next February’s cut-off Read more
Highly infectious diseases thrive in substandard living conditions. It was true in the 19th century, and as Covid-19 stubbornly continues to spread through the community in our biggest city, it is true here and now. An adequate standard of living has never been available for everyone in Aotearoa. A Māori Women’s Welfare League survey in Read more
The average house price in Aotearoa is more than $900,000. We have a shortfall of more than 100,000 dwellings, all urban housing markets are considered severely unaffordable by international standards. 500,000 Kiwis are in overcrowded housing situations 350,000 households are on accommodation supplements Māori home ownership sits at just over 30% less than 50% of Read more
Housing in New Zealand is viewed as a “speculative asset” rather than a home and has become a human rights crisis, according to a United Nations report. The report by UN special rapporteur Leilani Farha on adequate housing was tabled at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, following her visit to New Read more
While I am always happy to celebrate any accolades my country and city might garner on the international stage, seeing Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau awarded the top ranking in a recent “most liveable cities” survey left me somewhat flummoxed. In particular, I would argue that many Māori whānau in Auckland do not enjoy the benefits of this Read more
You may have heard an increasing number of child poverty experts and frontline support services calling on the Government to increase the amount of income support paid to effectively address poverty in New Zealand. What you may not have heard about is the recent UMR poll in February showing seven in 10 New Zealanders support Read more
Housing, access to COVID vaccination, income and well being, are some of the major concerns church leaders raised recently at a church and government meeting. As reported recently by CathNews, church leaders met, March 11, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Housing Minister Megan Woods to discuss issues of mutual Read more
A brand-new family home built in 10 weeks? It’s possible. Off-site building manufacturer Concision and house building company Versatile Pukekohe have announced they recently built a four bedroom, two bathroom house, in just 10 weeks from start to finish. The house was built from 43 prefabricated panels manufactured in Concision’s Rolleston factory over two days. Read more
Stein’s law says that if something cannot go on forever, it wont. But does a speculative bubble matter? The cryptocurrency bubble can be left to itself (tax evasion and criminal transactions aside). Why shouldn’t we do the same for housing? There are two general reasons why we should be concerned with a house price bubble. Read more
With the rent Māori are paying Māori could actually afford ‘the dream’, to buy a home, but a 20% increase in house prices means fewer are able to. The comment comes from Te Matapihi, independent Māori housing advocacy group chair, Rau Hoskins. Hoskins is asking the Government to be more nuanced with their policy framework, Read more