MP pleased house found for family, but ...

Nelson MP Nick Smith is delighted that a home has been found for the Grey family, a case he highlighted yesterday in which the family with three children and twins on the way were living in a garage.

"The family's delighted and relieved. However, it should not have taken the publicity of this case to resolve it.

"Housing New Zealand have known about this family's plight since November last year, and I wrote to them and telephoned them on many occasions. Yet, it was only when I took this case to the media that Housing New Zealand responded.

"That is no way in which to run housing policy. My fear is for the many other constituents facing similar housing crises. I will do my best to resolve these with Housing New Zealand and I hope I don't have to resort to going public with such cases to get action.

"The root cause of this problem is an inadequate housing supplement that has not kept up with the 30 percent rise in housing costs in Nelson.

"The Government must also review its state housing policy that gives tenants a tenancy for life with no incentive to move on, resulting in very few state houses becoming available for more needy families," says Dr Smith.

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