John Key's Government needs to invest in state housing not divest itself of a role in looking after our most vulnerable citizens, said the Green Party today.
The Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand was released by the Government today. It found that the current social housing model is struggling to meet demand. It also identified that 8,500- to 20,000 New Zealand households have extreme housing issues.
"It is great that this report recognises the need to build up the role of the community sector. I have seen a number of community sector housing initiatives that do a great job of working with local communities to reduce housing deprivation with limited resources. But support for the community sector needs to be alongside investment in state housing not instead of it, Metiria Turei, Green Party Co-leader said today.
"This report signals that John Key's Government is looking to move out of state housing and let the private sector take over.
"The fundamental issue is that there is widespread housing deprivation and this Government is not investing in social housing."
The money for acquiring and upgrading state houses has been slashed from $120 million dollars to $18 million dollars in this year's Budget. The average budget for Housing New Zealand Corporation capital investment over the last five years has been around $140 million.
"Housing is a basic need for all New Zealanders and it is vital that the Government plays a key role in ensuring everybody is guaranteed this basic essential of life," Mrs Turei said.
"Earlier this year the Green Party released its Mind the Gap package that would provide investment in state and community housing."
The Mind the Gap package would invest in 6000 new state house over the next three years creating 28,000 jobs and healthy warm homes for people who need support. It would also invest $200 million in community housing to build 500 homes and create 3,500 jobs.
"Housing deprivation drives inequality and the evidence shows that inequality is bad for everyone in society, not just the most vulnerable people directly affected by poverty," said Mrs Turei.
For more information
Mind the gap - Green New Deal initiatives to combat growing inequality in New Zealand - http://www.greens.org.nz/mindthegap
Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand report http://www.dbh.govt.nz/vision-for-social-housing-nz
The current 2010-2011 budget for upgrading and acquiring state houses is $18 million please see page 50 in the document below. There are forecast cuts to HNZC expenditure budget of $40 million in the next two years are on page 11 in Vote Housing 2010, Treasury http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2010/ise/v10/ise10-v10-pia-hous.pdf
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