Housing activists to protest outside Brownlee’s Office

A protest has been organised by Occupy Christchurch to highlight the issues of housing shortage and homelessness in the city. People are invited to gather outside Earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee’s Ilam road office at 2pm on Saturday (May 26).

“Brownlee has stated that there is no housing crisis. There is no crisis for him as he owns several rental properties in the city, for others displaced by the earthquake and effected by the recession this is certainly a crisis” said Kelly Pope, one of the protests organisers.

The group is calling for building social housing to be a priority in Christchurch and a rent-freeze on both social and private housing, as well as a democratic process for peoples housing concerns to be raised.

“We also want there to be acknowledgement of the real levels of homelessness in the city” said another person involved “When Occupy Christchurch was still in Hagley Park we became a place where the homeless could come for food and shelter. The council voted to evict us, and now they need to fulfil their promise to not leave people homeless. Rebuilding and constructing new sustainable housing is key to meeting these needs.”

Since leaving Hagley Park Occupy Christchurch has continued to meet weekly and organise events such as teach-ins, protests and documentary film screenings.

“The present commitment to state housing is not enough” said Byron Clark, an Occupy Christchurch activist. “We need housing for more than just the high priority cases. When someone is on a benefit paying half their income to a private landlord, welfare money is becoming a return on someone’s investment property, and that’s not how the welfare system should work. We need social housing for anyone receiving welfare, and also the huge number of people working reduced hours for low wages”

Organisers are expecting around one hundred people to attend and invite anyone who is interested to come along on the day.

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