HOW MANY STATE HOUSES DO WE NEED?
There are 24,000 households on the public housing waiting list of which 43% include children. These numbers changed little during 2022 despite the Government’s efforts at building more state houses and contracting community housing providers to provide social housing through income related rent contracts.
Government statistics on social housing waiting lists appear to show that demand increased more than 300% between 2017 and 2022. However this may just reflect previous government policies through the Ministry of Social Development that made it difficult for people to even apply for assistance. The apparent explosion in demand after 2018 is due to the current Government making it easier for families and single people who are homeless or surviving in housing poverty to ask for help.
The right answer for the number of state and other social housing units we need depends on how we as New Zealanders see the housing market working and in particular Government’s role in this market.
Most governments since the early 1950s have seen only a minimal role for the state in housing markets.
This residual state role in housing markets has resulted in the housing crises we are seeing at present and especially in the levels of homelessness we see on our streets and the poor health outcomes of children living in inadequate housing.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To move past the idea of a minimal role for the state in housing, CPAG believes that we need to recast social housing as a mainstay of our housing policy and as a key means of lifting people and families out of material hardship.
From this position, we should set ambitious targets so we have a large reduction of households on the waiting list. This will include building more state-owned rental housing as well as stock owned by iwi/hapū, local councils and NGOs. This target of state-owned rental housing should be estimated as a proportion of New Zealand’s housing stock.
An achievable goal is to lift this proportion for state-owned units from the present 3.2% to 4% by 2030 and 5% by 2040.
Over the next eight years this will mean building an additional 3,000 to 3,500 units each year to reach more than 90,000 dwellings by 2030.
The present number of state-owned rental housing is just under 66,000. This stock has only grown by 750 to 800 dwellings per year over the past four years (MHUD, 2023) so a four-fold increase in building activity and budget is required to achieve this.
IMPACTS AND INDICATORS
If implemented, these actions would be steps towards moving Aotearoa to be a nation where all children and families flourish free from poverty.
The provision of social housing is relevant to:
The Crown meeting Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and New Zealand meeting its obligations under the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Meeting targets for UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 which includes having safe and affordable housing and building resilient societies and economies.
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