Catholic emergency housing providers in Auckland are struggling to cope with increased demand for shelter as the COVID lockdown continues to wreak havoc on employment. 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 Read more
Tall white rose bushes line both sides of the path leading to the front door of the immaculate-looking villa. There are curtains at the windows and no signs of neglect or decay. Yet this expensive, inner-city home is one of Tāmaki Makaurau’s “ghost houses” – properties left empty long-term at a time when the country Read more
Moves are afoot to free up land at the former St Mary’s School site in Gisborne for at least 30 new houses. The board of Gisborne Holdings Ltd, which operates as Gisborne District Council’s commercial arm, have signed off a subdivision for the disused site. Read more
Thirty homeless families in South Auckland will get new, modern houses this week, and working parents are among the first tenants. The Monte Cecilia Housing Trust has built the 30 two-bedroom units and its new offices on the site of an old rest home in Windrush Close, Mangere, at a cost of $12.5 million. Thirty Read more
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea has turned housing developer in an effort to provide homes for migrant workers. In exchange, the local community will get voluntary help such as cleaning hospitals. The Saint John XXIII housing project is in the town of Kokopo, capital of East New Britain province. Although Kokopo’s population is Read more
The number of people waiting for public housing has almost doubled in the last 18 months. Some of the fastest growth took place last year and, at the end of March, 11,067 eligible households are waiting for a place to live. The near-record high statistics were released on Monday by the Ministry for Social Development Read more
Churches in New Zealand have a long history of taking strong positions in the public square on social justice. In a well known example, William Rutherford Waddell found great inequalities and deprivation in the St. Andrew’s parish of Dunedin during an economic downturn in the 1880s. He was determined the church should make a difference Read more
A year after the coalition Government took office, its flagship housing plan KiwiBuild is barely off the ground. At this year’s Bruce Jesson Memorial lecture, Monte Cecilia Housing Trust’s Bernie Smith argued KiwiBuild’s flaws not only perpetuate housing unaffordability, but cause further intergenerational social problems. Bernie Smith tells an interesting story. After working in some of the Read more
An estimated one in 100 New Zealanders are homeless with 24 per cent of the total homeless population being children and there are warnings this number could be higher. According to 2013 census data, which was collated by the University of Otago, Wellington’s Dr Kate Amore in her Severe Housing Deprivation in New Zealand study, Read more
The Tax Working Group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen is due to produce its interim report this month. This will consider the issue of whether New Zealand should continue not to tax most capital gains (tax the fruit from the tree, but not any growth in the tree that bears the fruit). The Labour Party, Read more