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
New Zealand’s child poverty, inadequate housing, incarceration and violence has “shocked” a United Nations committee reviewing the country’s human rights record. Members of a committee overseeing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) were last month incredulous at some of New Zealand’s worst statistics, chief human rights commissioner David Rutherford said. Continue Read more
Salvation Army representatives hope to meet with Whanganui District Council staff to discuss a proposed joint venture for pensioner housing. If it goes ahead, Whanganui will become the first regional city in New Zealand to implement such a scheme. Continue reading
About 500 people, mostly schoolchildren, gathered outside Parliament Tuesday to call on the government to do more to tackle homelessness. The hikoi was organised by the Catholic institute Ngā Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy, and used the rallying cry “shelter for all”. Sisters from the institute also met with Cabinet ministers Paula Bennett Read more
Some 50 protesters formed a human chain around a block of land in Trentham, Upper Hutt, which Housing New Zealand wants to sell. The St Joseph’s (Upper Hutt) Justice, Peace and Development group organised the peaceful protest on July 10. The group had led a petition asking the Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand, Bill English, to stop the sale of the Read more
Two US Catholic colleges are adopting housing policies which will allow students of different sexes to share a room based on gender identity. The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco (USF) will have the gender-inclusive housing policies for the 2016-17 academic year. The USF recently updated its Read more
“Misereor”, the German Catholic Bishops’ Organization for Development Co-operation, has helped to fund a People’s Community Network (PCN) project that will provide a home for people who have been living in informal settlements in the Jittu Estate in Raiwaqa near Suva Fiji. The Lagilagi Housing Project is a partnership between families and PCN, where the families Read more
Twenty-two families from overcrowded homes finally have room to breathe in a new housing scheme opened by a Tongan princess in Mangere. Storeman Sione Leha’uli, his wife Fitalika and what were then their two children were living with Mrs Leha’uli’s parents, grandparents, her brother and his wife and two children – 12 people in a Read more
A bill to introduce changes to the social housing sector announced in Budget 2013 passed its first reading in Parliament last Friday. The Social Housing Reform (Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Amendment Bill) allows private sector groups to be allowed to replace Housing New Zealand as providers of social housing. However, Catholic social justice agency Read more
The Government has announced $377 million will be spent on converting some three-bedroom state houses into four or five bedroom properties, and building 500 two-bedroom homes. The Monte Cecilia Housing Trust in South Auckland says the plans must be part of a long term approach. It says the problem is much bigger than overcrowding in Read more