The flawed and failed KiwiBuild model that uses free market solutions for free market failure and aims to get the children of the middle classes into housing is just the tip of the iceberg of housing failures…
More than 10,000 Kiwi households on public housing waiting list
In the biggest increase in state and community-provided housing in a decade, an extra 1658 public housing places have been made available in the past year.But it comes as the public housing waiting list increases to more than 10,000 households – an increase of 73 percent or 4530 households over the same time a year earlier.
…and where do those desperate live while state housing fails…
A rat hole not worth a dollar: The Auckland motel ‘profiting’ off the housing crisis
An Auckland motel given $3.1 million in Government funding to provide emergency housing to some of society’s most vulnerable has been urgently investigated after a Stuff investigation revealed it was never signed off as compliant with the building code.The Auckland Astro Motel in Ōtāhuhu has been described as a “rat hole not worth a dollar”. But it’s a tax-dollar goldmine, receiving $1m more than any other emergency housing accommodation provider in the country between October 2016 and June 2018.
Auckland Council building inspectors swooped on the property on Friday to conduct urgent safety checks after Stuff’s inquiries brought to its attention that the Astro never had a Code Compliance Certificate – an offence under the Building Act.
…rat motels run by slum lords.
The simple truth is that we need to build 30 000 state houses, now.
The pressure is on the poor because the desperate have no better options, if the Government lifts the poorest out of that desperation by a huge wholesale state house building process, then the rental market has to upgrade itself because they aren’t housing the desperate.
The key to solving the housing crisis is state houses, unfortunately we don’t have a Government or Housing Minister who have the courage to see that.
State housing at such a level won’t happen under this government, and it will certainly not happen under National in government either.
Prepare for more stuff ups, more broken promises, more failures, more BS and lies, the main focus is on keeping middle class folks satisfied and at peace, so they will not ‘fear’ losing their jobs, incomes and in some cased properties and investment portfolios.
The lower class will remain beggars in a BS society that decorates itself with dishonest praises and promises, like spreading confetti on dried cow shit and selling it as a delicacy.
News from RNZ from a couple of days ago, showing what kind of country this now is:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018683738/work-and-income-places-81yo-woman-in-pricey-dosshouse
“$350 dollar-a-week for a so called “dosshouse”. Chocka motels mean Work and Income offer an 81-year-old pensioner a room in boarding house. In her words the place is “absolutely bloody awful”.”
“The key to solving the housing crisis is state houses, unfortunately we don’t have a Government or Housing Minister who have the courage to see that.”
Unfortunately, I doubt very much that state houses will be built, unless the Ministry of Works is reformed…
Re-formed, I take it. Roger Douglas reformed it out of existence in 1988.
I feel like a broken record, the labour party has an economic program which is right wing. Their policies because of that, are going to be right wing – no matter how much they try and dress it up with kindness.
I’m sure you’re serious. And I’m going to remind you that the right side has the young earth creationists, climate deniers, and “alternative facts”. As for the alt-right itself? soggy pizzas. I find the assertion that they depend on empirical data more than the left total comedy of errors.
Most of the Right-Wingers here up and jumped ship when the National Party lost the invincible blue wall of silence. Leaving them with crazies like David Farar who gleefully cackle whenever the possibility of the Left being exterminated arises.
They are still here, just ashamed and saddened at what National is nowadays.
Sheesh talk about a whataboutism Sam.
I was not talking about the national party, nor the far right. I was talking about how economics drives policy. If you don’t get that, I can’t do anything for you.
You’ve always been a time waster Adam. It’s disingenous to complain about politics becoming about identity…, as if there would have been a more leftist alternative in place before. Let’s not even get to the post apparently identifying class warfare as leftist.
I like your aspirations for decent housing Martyn, but as the posts point out, no inclination by government to achieve what’s needed. Or currently, under any possible government. No parliamentary road to socialism. Change the system, junk Capitalism.
National spent 9 years saying there was no housing crisis and did absolutely nothing to address the elephant in the room.
John Key stood there grinning like the Cheshire cat, openly stating “No, there’s no housing crisis”.
Labour admitted there was a housing crisis in their first year of governance and have made efforts to address it including stopping the drain of housing stock by limiting the ability for non-nationals to buy property here.
No one ever fails by trying – you simply learn what works and what doesn’t.
You fail when you don’t admit there’s a problem, then refuse to do anything about it.
When you have a problem that’s been years in the making and conveniently ignored by those who have gone before, it’s not going to be solved overnight.
Given the mindboggling numbers of houses needed, something radically different is needed. The housing needs of the poor will never be met the way this government is going about it. If we have so many living in cars they would be quite happy to live, as a short term measure, in modified shipping containers. They can be and have been made to work quite adequately and can be joined Leggo- fashion at low cost and quickly by the thousands- much cheaper in the long run than shoddy motels and boarding houses. The workers brought in to build these houses can live in them too.
Once enough have been built at a proposed building project, the permanent houses are built and then rented out. The “Leggo” houses are then dismantled and move to the next building project. Among other advantages, it would enable those would- be permanent tenants to show if they respect their future homes, or are freeloaders.
The ideal model for rental housing already exists in The Netherlands and has done so for many years. The organisations providing the housing are strictly controlled by Government regulation including restrictions on rental increases. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – the Dutch are more than willing to show us how its done.
Its not just the desperate. Any ‘normal’ person in ‘normal’ circumstances facing a life time of renting, through need, not choice, faces some very grim times.
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