Nelson’s housing crisis is hurting tenants’ mental and physical health and the education of children, according to Community Action Nelson.

The community group has written to Hon Megan Woods, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, calling on the coaltion government to be a ‘government with guts’ on the housing issue. Spokesperson Mary Ellen O’Connor says the impact on children’s education is a rising concern, as families repeatedly move homes.

“Right now it’s the time of year when tenants are given notice they have to move, to free up homes for top dollar rentals over the lucrative summer season,” she says. “Agencies are telling us more and more tenancies are only for a six month period. This means kids who are often already disadvantaged, have to keep shifting schools with all the challenges that presents for them and their parents and teachers.”

According to the Massey Home Affordability Index to June 2019, Tasman district is the second least affordable region in New Zealand after Auckland, with Nelson in third place. O’Connor said there were numerous factors, alongside tourism, that contributed to Nelson’s high house prices and high rents.

“We’ve got ‘sunshine wages’ and seasonal employment, an influx of wealthy retirees and lifestylers, we’re a refugee destination and a student town and we have an historically higher number of ex-psychiatric patients in community accommodation,” she said. “Up against this we have a low proportion of state houses (734 at this moment) and councils with very limited involvement in social housing.

“This means that 90% of the rentals in Nelson/Tasman are privately owned, so they are almost completely unregulated; and a lot of the stock is not only overpriced, but in very poor condition.”

CAN is asking the Minister to reconsider three of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group‘s recommendations regarding housing for this region.

1. Urgently expand and accelerate Government efforts to substantially increase public housing on an industrial scale and continue urgent efforts to end homelessness.

2. Increase the capacity of third-sector community-based housing providers such as the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust.

3. Subsidise housing costs for people on low incomes (in addition to raising main benefit rates to provide an adequate income) and ensure the combination of changes to housing support and abatement rates make households better off.

On the plus side, O’Connor said the two local councils had recently put considerable energy into forging the Nelson-Tasman Future Development Strategy. I

“In this proposal they clearly state their desire to establish a forum for ongoing liaison with key central government agencies such as HUDA to facilitate the redevelopment of public land holdings and we see this as a very good place to start working with central government to relieve the very real impact of the high cost of housing in Nelson.”

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