Scrutiny Week From The Outside: Chris Bishop Plans To Review Housing Support But With No Funding For More State Housing

Budget 2024 commitment only 1500 new homes to be provided by Community Housing Providers over two years from 2025 with no new funding for Kāinga Ora state homes, despite waitlists of 25,000 households. Bishop is now calling for a review of all housing support systems including Accommodation Supplement.

Accommodation Supplement is a landlord subsidy which grew out of a time in the 1990s where the National government tried to get rid of state housing, choosing to instead support the growth of private landlords in our housing system. We now have around 360,000 renters accessing Accommodation Supplement because they simply cannot afford their private rentals, with only 3.4% of our housing stock is public housing.

“We have a landlord economy in this country which exploits everyday people who should be in public housing. This is because successive governments have chosen landlord subsidies over providing people with stable homes,” says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public Housing Futures

“Despite the flaws of Accommodation Supplement, it is essential to many people and households struggling to afford rents, and until we get a Government willing to commit to a mass public housing programme able to truly challenge the private rental market, it must remain,” says Cole.

Bishop identified that when people get a pay rise they are forced out of public housing into expensive private rentals.

“The solution to this is for the Government to build more public housing and expand its eligibility - including increasing the income threshold so that it is a stable, long-term option for more people instead of the temporary option,” says Cole.

“This Government is completely out of touch with the reality of everyday people. In a time where people are a paycheck away from homelessness, and given we have some of the most expensive rents in the world, it's time for the Government to invest in all of our long-term futures and commit to state housing.

“Expanding state housing is key to putting a downward pressure on rents, and reducing the need for landlord subsidies – freeing up land supply in greenfields and giving handouts to landlords won’t achieve this,” says Cole.

Bishop has also not ruled out a mass transfer of public housing to Community Housing Providers.

“While some may not call transfers of public housing a sell off, it is privatisation by stealth – and at the expense of the Government providing the necessary resources to build new additional public housing at the scale needed to end the waitlist, and then provide homes for everyone struggling to afford private rents,” says Cole

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