Sustained investment in social housing vital in reducing poverty

A large-scale and sustained investment in social housing is absolutely vital to the further reduction of poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand, says the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS). This a central message to be drawn from the latest report released today by the Salvation Army Parliamentary and Social Policy Unit entitled “Rebuilding the Kiwi Dream”.

“NZCCSS has consistently advocated over many years for Government to invest substantially in creating wide provision of quality social housing for people on the lower incomes, for whom the option of home ownership is not a realistic prospect,” says spokesperson Karen Morrison-Hume. “The current government has already made some significant progress through Housing NZ Corporation in building new housing, but the need is huge and more needs to be done at a faster pace.”

The Salvation Army research shows that historically massive investment by Central Government in social housing has produced rapid and sustainable increases in social wellbeing in New Zealand. The current strong economic situation for our country creates the opportunity to make the political choice to substantially increase current levels of social housing in order to ensure that every person can have access to rental housing of good quality that they can afford.

“The evidence supports publicly funded social housing as the most effective way of providing such housing”, says Ms Morrison-Hume. “It is a central issue of social justice and, above all, it is the tens of thousands of children living in substandard housing whose health, education and wider social outcomes are directly improved by better housing for their families”.

NZCCSS urges the Government to quickly and decisively move to build on the good work of the NZ Housing Strategy by increasing the total number of social housing units from the current levels of around 500 a year to at least 1,000.

Similarly the investment in supporting community-based housing projects through the Housing Innovation Fund (HIF) needs to be significantly increased. The current funding of around $12 million is nowhere near enough, with funding applications totalling over $40 million already submitted by the community sector to HIF.

Christian social service agencies are involved in providing many different types of social housing, including emergency housing, community-funded housing projects, supported living and pensioner units for older people.

ENDS

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