Bennett parks numbers on social housing

Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett admitted today that well over 1000 families have been subsidised through the accommodation supplement to stay in the Ranui campground, somewhere she has previously described as not the right place for children to be growing up in.

“For six years while Ms Bennett was both the local MP and the Minister of Social Development, government officials were routinely referring homeless people to live in the camping ground,” Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says.

“She is happy to now criticise the caravan park, yet she and her colleagues did nothing to increase the supply of emergency housing, while the Auckland housing crisis got worse every year under the National Government.

“West Auckland, like so many parts of New Zealand has growing homelessness, and a completely inadequate supply of emergency housing.

“People with literally nowhere else to go, no chance of getting a state house, and no private rentals available, continue to beat a path to the Western Heights Caravan Park in Ranui.

“Meanwhile Paula Bennett is still unable to say how many extra people might be housed under her social housing policy,” Phil Twyford said.

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