โThe Government isnโt providing people somewhere to live, despite what National Ministers would have us believe. Every new Kฤinga Ora house has been funded and built by the previous government,โ Labourโs housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said.
โThe Government hasnโt funded any more Kฤinga Ora builds of its own and has drastically reduced funding to Community Housing Providers. So, to stem the flow of people needing housing it has changed the rules to make it harder to get into emergency housing.
โThe need hasnโt reduced, but applications have. Last year emergency housing averaged 8,660 applications a month. Thatโs dropped to under 4,000 per month now. People donโt tend to apply if they know they wonโt qualify under the new rules. The rate of applications being declined has also almost tripled from 3% a month in the 2023 calendar year to 10% for August 2024.
โWhat New Zealanders will see is more people living in cars and homelessness increasing, itโs as simple as that.
โThis is just National returning to type. We canโt forget the last National Government ended up with 1,500 fewer public homes than it started with and sucked out $576 million in dividends from Housing New Zealand.
โIf National delivered additional homes at the rate Labour did, we would get much closer to solving the housing crisis. Instead, theyโve cut $1.5 billion from public house building and maintenance funding, and reduced peopleโs ability to ask for help.
โThis Government is much more interested in cutting costs than helping people into a home,โ Kieran McAnulty said.