Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is visiting The Commons Project at Housing First Ōtautahi, which helps vulnerable whānau connect and engage with services.

“Everyone deserves to have a safe, warm, dry place to call home. The Green Party will ensure this by clearing the public housing waitlist in 5 years and building 35,000 new warm, affordable, public houses over the next five years,” says Green Party co-leader, Marama Davidson.

“Under this Government, with the Greens’ support, Kāinga Ora is building more new public homes than it has for over a generation. But there is much further to go.

“The current state of housing in Aotearoa is no accident. It is because of the decisions of successive governments that have not prioritised people, and instead let the rental market more closely resemble a game of monopoly than a public good - and it is landlords who hold all the cards.

“Because of this, those on the lowest incomes spend too much of their income on rent. Many families also struggle to put down roots in communities because they have to constantly move to manage rising rents. This isn’t good enough in a country as wealthy as Aotearoa.

“Only the Green Party has shown the political willpower to do something about the state of housing in this country at the scale needed to give everyone a decent home. If we are around the table with Labour, Green Ministers would be setting out a plan for 35,000 new homes delivered with more funding, dedicated manufacturing sites, and secure long-term contracts.

“The solutions are as clear as they have always been: much more housing, controls on rent increases, a rental warrant of fitness, and thousands more new public and community sector homes in places people want to live. In the first 100 days of a new government, we will introduce a new Renters’ Rights Bill to give effect to these changes.

“Any party that stops short of promising to make everyone’s home healthy and affordable, is actively choosing to make life harder for thousands of people. Everything we need to make life better for people in Aotearoa exists. What’s missing is the political willpower to use it,” says Marama Davidson.

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