As the 2024 plan is still being debated, social housing won't get a look-in for funds until 2032 if Council staff recommendations are adopted.

The Council currently houses more than 3000 tenants across 1900 homes through housing provider Te Toi Mahana.

Deferred maintenance

When it meets on Thursday to vote on the long-term plan, the Council would like councillors to defer social housing upgrades.

Citing the need to cut back, staff note overall savings from the social housing upgrades would be $61.3 million. That money would be used to create a disaster fund and to contribute to the $500m the Council needs to address its under-insurance gap.

The upgrades include work which the Council must undertake as part of its Deed of Grant with the Government. They include work like seismic strengthening, insulation, ventilation, fencing and lighting, as well as kitchens, storage and laundry facility upgrades.

The Government funded $220m for this in 2007. In return the Council was to remain a social housing provider until at least 2037 - and upgrade its housing portfolio to modern standards.

Tenants deserve better

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau says it is Councillors' responsibility - not Council staff's - to decide where savings come from.

She wants an amendment to the staff report to remove the recommendation for deferring housing upgrades.

"This will mean tenants can get the safe, dry homes they deserve" she says.

Social housing is one of the "non-negotiables" Whanau is firm about.

A different model

In Auckland, Council staff help support Manaaki Tangata, a hospitality and care facility.

The collaboration between Auckland Council, Eke Panuku and Maori Wardens responds to the needs of those experiencing homelessness in the city centre.

Council staff say the facility means "Our most vulnerable can ... have a shower and some food, store their belongings, and ultimately the hope is we can connect them to other services available to help them".

"For some, it might be their first time on the street, they've done something to get themselves kicked out and they literally have nowhere to go. It's a very scary reality having nowhere to go."

Some mightn't start on the streets with a drinking or drug problem but, to survive, they end up with one, says a Maori warden.

"That's where we come in ... sometimes just getting people that help, helps them to make that good decision."

Source

• Our Auckland
• The Post

The company was established in 2020 to take over Kainga Ora's housing portfolio from Tawa to Paekakariki, excluding Porirua East.

It has plans to build upwards of 2500 more homes over the next 50 years.

Chief executive James Te Puni says long term it aims to offer rent-to-own options, but for now, the priority is housing security. Read more

Sitting on Queen Street East in the Hastings suburb of Parkvale since 1987, the 1960s Lockwood-styled St Mark's Presbyterian Church is in its final days as demolition starts to prepare the site for a social housing development.

Since the dissolution of the St Mark's congregation three years ago, St Andrew's, Hastings, has been looking after the building facilities and considering what to do with the church, which it says is in poor condition. Read more

Six school leaders want "transparency" on Rotorua's housing intensification across the board, saying that knowing early about developments would help them better support high needs children.

They wrote to Rotorua Lakes Council saying, in their view, there was "not enough proactive planning and communication" to help schools support students and manage growing numbers. Read more

According to Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register, the number of applicants approved and waiting for social housing peaked at 26,868 at the end of March this year, declined slightly to 26,664 at the end of June then dropped more significantly to 24,996 at the end of September.

That means the number of applicants on the list is now down 7% from the March peak.

The June figure was the first time the number of applicants recorded on the register has declined since it was set up in September 2017. The fact the numbers have declined for two consecutive quarters, with the September decline reasonably substantial, suggests this may be the start of a downward trend.Read more

The homes will be prefabricated in the Hutt Valley then assembled on site at 80 Caernarvon Drive in Flaxmere, Hastings.

The half-acre site is owned by the Methodist Church of NZ Hastings Samoan Parish which wants to help address the ongoing housing crisis in the region.

The project will also involve Wesley Community Action - which will oversee the project - and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Work is set to begin on the $7 million project following a ground-breaking ceremony on 17 September. Read more

A leaked paper from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development warned that state housing agency Kainga Ora's borrowing was becoming unsustainable.

The paper suggested suspending programmes to improve heating and removing "accessibility improvements" from Kainga Ora's retrofit programme as ways of saving money, as well as leaving remote locations which were high cost.

Green Party spokeswoman for disabled people Jan Logie urged Housing Minister Megan Woods to rule out accepting that recommendation. Read more

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 point until permanent homes that fit their needs are found.

He says the state government is planning to work with community housing organisations to acquire accommodation for families currently living in hotels.

Victoria's most recent (sixth) lockdown at the beginning of August seemingly its last, the program will be gradually wound back.

Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith is welcoming the $66 million commitment to homeless families. She is concerned some people would still fall through the cracks, however.

These will include homeless singles and couples, who aren't included in the new state government investment. They will need to work with support agencies to find new accommodation by February.

Smith says it's inevitable some singles and couples will need to move into "substandard and unacceptable" accommodation such as rooming houses once the hotels programme concludes.

"Until more social housing exists or the federal government increases its support to the homeless to an acceptable level, that's just the situation at the moment," she says.

She wants the state government to extend the permanent housing support to highly vulnerable individuals in the short and medium-term.

"We were concerned as a sector that we'd just be turfing people out of hotels. This is a fantastic outcome for those families, who can now enjoy a full-time home and build a trajectory towards a bright future," she says.

Somewhat further down the track next year, the state government's $5.3 billion housing build plans will create 12,000 new properties. The first of these won't open until the second half of next year at the earliest.

Wynne says the state government will support all residents in emergency hotels to develop a housing exit plan over the coming months.

"We are continuing to work with the community sector to provide the support needed, including transitional housing and private rental assistance," he says.

Peter Ruzyla, chief executive of social and community health organisation EACH, is welcoming the sharpened focus on homelessness and pragmatic about what can be achieved initially.

"It is a reality check that not everybody can be perfectly assisted at all times. The existing system is working at full stretch to absorb this amount of additional work, money and people in a very short period of time," he said.

Source

• The Age
• Image: Housing Vic

Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien made the request to the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, in a recent letter.

It comes as work continues to finalise the Government's Housing for All plan.

The plan will seek to provide more than 33,000 new homes per year by 2025. It is set to be launched later this week.

Speaking last week, Mr O'Brien said the plan will deliver social housing in Ireland "on a scale never seen before".

He also said the multi-annual housing plan will be fully funded. There would be a "massive emphasis on affordable housing".

The Minister emphasised how identifying land banks and vacant buildings for homes will be a vital part of the Government's future housing plan.

In his letter, the Minister acknowledged the church's independence in managing its property portfolio and how addressing the housing crisis is primarily the State's duty.

A spokesman for Archbishop Martin said he would, on receiving the letter, "consider its content carefully. In consultation with his brother bishops, he will reflect on it during the autumn general meeting of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference in October".

Mr O'Brien highlighted previous remarks by the Most Rev Martin that "radical steps" need to be taken on housing.

O'Brien also pointed to comments by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, about the need for national engagement with "a significant housing crisis".

The archbishop's spokesman said, "The housing and homelessness crisis is a key social justice challenge of this generation".

"Catholic social teaching recognises that housing is a universal human right, with corresponding responsibilities on societies to honour that right," he added.

"Therefore, we must all work towards resolving this crisis in the interest of the common good. In recent years, the faith sector has been particularly vocal in calling for radical action from the State to alleviate the housing and homelessness problem."

Asked if he wanted the State to have first call on land the church has available for sale, O'Brien responded: "I want to have the discussions with them first. In fairness, I have seen that some approved housing bodies have had some good engagement with the churches."

Land and property owned by the Catholic Church in Ireland have previously been valued in the billions. Still, the ownership is not straightforward due to each parish being a separate legal entity in civil and canon law.

In October 2018, after the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland, the Catholic bishops launched A Room at the Inn? This is a pastoral letter on housing and homelessness that called for housing to be recognised "as a human right" and "should be safe, affordable and appropriate".

It said, "provision of housing cannot be left solely to the market". It "should not be treated as any other commodity".

Sources

Irish Times

Irish Times

The Hon Megan Woods has been told historically low-interest rates, a stalled private rental market and not enough new houses are drivers of the housing crisis.

An increasing population due to Covid-19 border closures is partly to blame and a "more measured immigration policy" which is aligned to New Zealand's capacity to build more housing is needed, says the briefing paper.

The Salvation Army, which researched and delivered the paper, is calling for eight policy reforms.

These include the government addressing the impact of the Reserve Bank's monetary policy, implementing some form of capital or wealth tax and partnering with NGOs to provide social and emergency housing.

A review of the operational and financial sustainability and effectiveness of the government's housing provider Kainga Ora should also be undertaken.

Salvation Army's social housing director Greg Foster said the demand for housing was huge, but there was no supply.

"We just opened 22 units in Westgate about a month ago and we've had hundreds of people applying for those 22 places," he said.

"This storm is entirely the creation of poor housing policies of the past as well as related monetary and fiscal policies of the present', he said.

Foster said the organisation could not see an end in sight to the crisis and expected things to worsen for at least the next 12 to 18 months.

"Rents and the price of affordable housing are likely to continue to rise faster than incomes, and the social housing waiting list will grow longer still."

Foster is concerned a generation of young New Zealanders could be scarred by their current experiences of poor and inadequate housing.

"The Salvation Army has built over a hundred social houses in the past 12 months and will be building more in the next 12 months with the support of the government.

"Nonetheless, I feel that they need to do even more to support the sector to build more social and affordable housing at this time."

Source

• RNZ
• Image: Stuff

When Christchurch City Council agreed to transfer $50 million worth of social housing to the Otautahi Community Housing Trust, it had to under the Public Works Act give the original owners or their descendants the first opportunity to buy their property back at the current market value. Read more

In May, the number of applicants on the public housing waitlist hit 17,982 - an increase of 1271 on the previous month. That was triple the average monthly increase of 448 in the previous year. Continue reading

A Pentecostal pastor is claiming his church's plans for a new religious community facility have been "ambushed" by the Government, which now wants the land for social housing. Read more

All existing local tenancy agreements will remain in place.

Residents will now receive an increased level of service aimed both at improving well-being and decreasing isolation.

Sister Margaret Anne Mills, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of Compassion, says they are committed to Levin, Shannon and Foxton for the long term.

"We will deliver sustainable, affordable, inclusive and high-quality housing using our collective expertise," she says.

"Our residents will have access to regular nursing visits and other services for the elderly."

The Sisters and Willis Bond & Co, a private investor, are equal shareholders in Compassion Horowhenua. The two have a long-standing relationship.

The District Council is selling the portfolio to Compassion Horowhenua. It is made up of 115 units distributed across eight complexes in Levin, where 97% are based, and in Foxton and Shannon.

The average age of buildings is 39.7 years. 50 - 60% of these will require replacement in the next 20-25 years at an approximate cost of $4.3 million.

A $5.2m outstanding loan is included in the sale as well as 1.1 hectares of land adjacent to Waimarie Park which will be held for further affordable housing.

Compassion Housing will receive a rates remission in keeping with the Council's policy.

Horowhenua District Council's Community Wellbeing Chair, Barry Judd, says it is a fantastic result for tenants and ratepayers alike.

"Compassion Housing is committed to helping its residents participate in the community, maintain a healthy lifestyle and avoid isolation - this is a level of service that is increasingly necessary but which Council has been unable to provide."

The Sisters of Compassion were founded in 1892 by Mother Suzanne Aubert, who is in the process of being recognised as New Zealand's first Catholic saint.

The Sister's mission is to bring love and care to the disadvantaged in society.

Source

• Pacific Scoop
• Horowhenua District Council
• Scoop Regional
• Image: Horowhenua District Council

Speaking to NZME's Sadie Beckman ahead of a meeting in Levin last Friday, Little said he had noticed that the proposed purchaser of the housing was not just a charity, and that there was corporate interest.

Compassion Horowhenua, has a shareholding split equally between the Sisters of Compassion and Willis and Bond Co private investors. The two have a long standing relationship.

According to the agreement between Compassion Horowhenua and the council, the new owners will provide "security of tenure for all tenants for the duration of their need" and an "integrated wrap-around service for the target population". Read more

Where Protestants wait about nine months to be placed in social housing, Catholics wait 15 months on average, the report from the Equality Commission says.

The report - ‘Statement on Key Inequalities in Housing and Communities in Northern Ireland' analysed social housing waiting lists for 2004-2009 and for 2013/14.

It says these show Catholics experienced "the longest median waiting times for social housing at the point of allocation in Northern Ireland".

While the wait for social housing increased for all groups over these periods, the report notes "more substantive" increases were seen in households identified as Catholic or 'other'.

In this respect, between 2004 and 2009 the average waiting list time for Catholic households was eight months, compared with six months for 'other religion' households and six months for Protestants.

But by 2013/14, the reports says the wait had nearly doubled for Catholics to 15 months, while 'other religion' households had more than doubled to 13 months. The wait for Protestants had increased by a third to nine months.

Source

• Independent
• NewsLetter
• Belfast Telegraph
• Image: Belfast Telegraph

Their views are influenced by the experience of their church congregations and church based social agencies in most New Zealand communities.

The church leaders told the Prime Minister that an insufficient supply of safe and affordable housing in New Zealand is contributing to a level of poverty that is fracturing the well-being of people and communities and hindering the educational progress of our children.

"Ensuring everyone has access to affordable housing is perhaps the most important means to lifting New Zealanders out of poverty and boosting the nation's collective health and prosperity," said the church leaders.

The church leaders thanked Government for providing increased support for homeless people, but asked for more urgent attention to permanently address people's long-term housing need.

Because sustainable communities can only occur where there is housing security, the leaders presented a comprehensive strategy on each aspect of the housing continuum, urging ministers to implement a broader strategy of ownership, rental, social and emergency housing solutions.

The church leaders also sought input into the development of the pilot community refugee sponsorship model announced last year.

Churches have supported the increased intake of refugees from Syria through actions such as setting up homes and providing other forms of support, and see room for increased partnership to assist and support refugee families living in and being brought to New Zealand.

Government's social investment approach to social policy was discussed. While supporting the idea of social investment, the church leaders raised questions about the narrowness of this approach.

They felt a more successful social investment approach would identify how to get the right help to the people who needed it, when they needed it, and when they were motivated for change.

Their church leaders' paper proposed a more coordinated system to support such an approach.

The church leaders that met with the Prime Minister included: Anglican Archbishop Philip Anglican, Baptist Daniel Palmer, Catholic Cardinal John Dew, Methodist Rev Prince Devanandan, Presbyterian Rev Richard Dawson, and Salvation Army Commissioner Andrew Westrupp. Church social policy advisors also attended the meeting.

Source

• Supplied
• Image: interest.co.nz

Harrison Grierson have proposed nine options. Many of the proposed options indicate room for expansion and the development of new one and two-bedroom units.

The 25-unit village was established in 1984 for people over 60 on low incomes.

But the Auckland Council proposes to demolish the Village.

They want to use the land to to extend Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough.

Legacy Auckland City Council agreed to acquire the land over a period of years from the Auckland Catholic Diocese in 2010.

Residents have right-to-occupy agreements. That means they can stay for the rest of their lives or until they choose to leave.

Those opposing the demolition say the proposal to extend the park is problematic.

They highlight the lack of social housing options for the elderly.

"We have a housing crisis in Auckland and if we don't provide this kind of social housing for our seniors many will be thrown out of our community," says Puketapapa Local Board member Michael Wood.

But the Auckland Council community and social policy general manager Kataraina Maki says the purchase of the land is being funded through development contributions for open space.

"This funding does not allow the land to be used for any purpose other than open space," she says.

"Any change to the proposed use of Liston Village would require the council to refund the development contributions."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

However they say little has been done to address the urgent need for more long-term secure and affordable housing.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Caritas says there is a noticeable lack of investment in building new homes.

Of the announced $258 million new spending over four years for housing, only $38.7 million is budgeted to be spent in the next financial year.

This is less than 5 percent of the $857 million budgeted for a new tax administration system.

"While emergency housing is essential, families need secure and affordable housing in the long term to truly make a difference for future generations," says Caritas Director Julianne Hickey.

"Families and homes go together," she said.

Hickey says new investment to support the most vulnerable children is important, however every child needs a stable roof over their head and a family needs an adequate and stable income in order to flourish.

"The Budget does not substantially address key issues and concerns of the vulnerable in our community, in relation to secure and affordable housing, secure and adequate income and a social security system that meets the needs of families and individuals on a benefit."

Read Caritas' full press release

The Justice and Peace Commission of the Diocese of Auckland

The Commission said that while more funding for emergency housing is welcome it is only temporary relief that will help a small number of homeless people.

It says more permanent housing to provide certainty for families is urgently needed.

"It is unclear how $200 million for 750 more social housing places over four years would have a significant impact on the present shortage."

It is likely that this will not provide more state houses but will further the Government's intentions to reduce state housing in a time of extreme need."

The Commission's view it is the responsibility of the Government itself to provide and maintain adequate and affordable stable housing for those unable to provide it for themselves.

It is disappointed that there are no immediate measures to alleviate the housing crisis, for example, upgrading vacant state houses to make them available for families in need of housing.

Read the Auckland Diocese's JPC full press release

Source

• Supplied
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, (RTA) ceiling and underfloor insulation will need to be retrofitted in social housing by July, and in all other rental homes by July 2019.

It could cost landlords up to $3000 per property to comply.

The Social Services Select Committee is currently hearing submissions on the bill.

Caritas Aotearoa manager Lisa Beech told Parliament's Social Services Select Committee there would be nothing to stop landlords from passing that cost on to tenants.

In some of those rentals the upgrades were necessary, rather than being nice-to-haves, she said.

"We wouldn't allow people to sell rotten fruit in supermarkets and then charge the consumer for checking that they actually get what they paid for.

"I think there's an element in housing in which we're leaving tenants to complain about the quality of housing they're receiving."

The Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills has labelled the RTA amendment Bill as "shameful" and says it will do little to improve conditions for children living in cold, damp, mouldy housing.

Wills is asking the Government to amend the Bill to include three elements that would ensure houses are warm and dry:

1. Require all houses meet the current insulation standard

2. Apply a heating and ventilation standard

3. Introduce monitoring or enforcement by local government, with inspections - rather than requiring tenants to complain

The RTA currently places a general obligation on landlords to maintain the premises in a reasonable state of cleanliness and repair.

Without the proposed amendments landlords have been required to comply with all laws in respect of buildings, health, and safety under any enactment in so far as they apply to the premises.

Examples include the provision of adequate ventilation and lighting, and an approved form of heating in every living room.

There has been no requirement in either the RTA or any other legislation for either smoke alarms or insulation to be provided at a premises.

Source

• radionnz.co.nz
• maoritelevision.com
• Image: www.stuff.co.nz