Government must continue to invest in housing

Labour’s Housing Spokesperson Moana Mackey said that Labour would be looking very closely at the Government’s report The Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand and thanked members involved for all their hard work.

“The report highlights the need for the government to further invest in New Zealand’s social housing model and shows that the sector is struggling under the growing pressures of trying to meet the housing needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens.

However Ms Mackey said that comments from the Government since the release of the report raised some concerns about their plans for social housing.

“The Government needs to guarantee that they will not use this report as an excuse to once again start privatising state housing. The Minister is on record as saying that the state housing stock administered by Housing New Zealand will increase, not reduce, and we will hold him to that promise.

"Labour welcomes an increased role for community housing organisations in the provision of social housing, but this must be in addition to Housing New Zealand, not instead of it.

Ms Mackey said that it was completely unrealistic to suggest that community housing organisations should do this entirely from philanthropic donations, as suggested by the Government.

"Government investment and support is vital. Charitable organisations are already stretched to breaking point, and expecting them to step in and compensate for the lack of Government funding is unreasonable.

National has made it clear that state housing is not one of their top priorities. The money for acquiring and upgrading state houses was slashed from $120 million dollars to $18 million dollars in this year’s Budget.

“Expecting charities to make up the difference in cuts is unrealistic. And on top of those expectations, the report confirms that this government has no intention of further investing funds into upgrading, building or growing our social housing sector,” Moana Mackey said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media