The announcement by Chris Bishop today that the Government plans to demolish and sell 1500 state houses, retrofit 400 but only renew the building of 1500 new homes from 2026 will categorically worsen the housing crisis in this country.

“This turnaround plan is really the Government turning their backs on state housing while people in our communities are struggling to afford their rent or find suitable shelter, and the construction industry remains in a slump,” says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public Housing Futures.

The waitlist for public housing is 20,000 households, but this doesn’t capture the many people who are living in severe housing deprivation who should be in public housing. Census data released last year showed that 112,496 people were severely housing deprived - sleeping on couches, in their cars and on the streets.

“The evidence clearly shows us that current Kāinga Ora debt levels are negligible when compared to the amount of homes they own. The Government has manufactured a debt crisis, in order to justify a sell-off of state housing and privatisation of the sector - finishing the job started by Bill English and John Key,” says Cole.

The Government paused the building of thousands of public housing units across the country, and it seems likely that many of these projects will be sold to private developers.

“It’s clear the Government has a privatisation agenda when it comes to state housing – whether it is selling public housing land, selling homes or inviting more private investors to profit from our housing,” says Cole.

“We have a housing catastrophe in this country, with more and more people unable to afford their rent, struggling to pay bills and medication costs. Now is a time where we should be building public housing at scale – to create secure and permanently affordable housing, to create jobs and to boost local economies,” says Cole.

© Scoop Media