Kāinga Ora is now a sad joke looking for a punchline
Kāinga Ora was supposed to be the backbone of New Zealand’s public housing system. Instead, critics say it has become a hollowed-out shell — selling assets, abandoning developments and managing social collapse rather than preventing it.
Kāinga Ora sell-off: Harcourts agent’s $1.9m state house purchase referred to regulator
A $1.9 million deal in which an Auckland real estate agent bought three state homes being sold through the Manukau outlet for which he worked is now under the scrutiny of Harcourts’ head office and the industry regulator.
Kāinga Ora doesn’t deserve a Māori name.
It doesn’t have the mana to own a Māori name.
It was once the proud backbone of New Zealand’s egalitarianism, now it’s a sick joke looking for a punchline.
It is a hollow fraud, a mutated agreement between the State and the Private Landlord class that we will never build enough public housing to ensure desperation in the market which Landlords can exploit.
Look at these terrible stories…
Christchurch campground left to vandals as Kāinga Ora scraps housing plan
A once cherished suburban campground in Christchurch is being trashed by vandals while it awaits sale by Kāinga Ora.
The 7,851 m2 property was formerly the Amber Park Kiwi Holiday Park at 308-314 Blenheim Rd in Upper Riccarton. Kāinga Ora purchased the property in 2023 with the intention to develop it for social housing – a proposal that has since been scrapped.
“As the site is no longer required for this purpose, we are selling it to give others the opportunity to develop it,” said Caroline McDowall, General Manager Housing Delivery Group for Kāinga Ora.
…not just this site, a whole bunch of sites…
“Having that land sitting idle is a disservice to the community, especially when the holiday park has in the past been a place for people to stay,” he said.
“We’ve seen it elsewhere in Riccarton where sites like the much-valued Antonio Hall and the Deans Ave saleyards are left idle and start to become a problem, so I think we’d all like to see action on the Amber Park site sooner rather than later.
“Riccarton can’t thrive with idle land.”
…this Government hasn’t built any new state houses and has privatised as many as they can get away with.
The housing crisis is becoming a social collapse machine
There is an obscene doom loop at play here.
The Government guts public housing, changes the thresholds for those who can get help, creates a tsunami of homelessness and then criminalises the homelessness while gaining mass surveillance powers.
It’s a cascading avalanche of social carnage with all the ethical compassion of your average drug cartel.
The lack of any attempt to utilise its role as a public good leads to things like this..
The state housing agency says it didn’t know a tenant it was placing in in a block of Auckland flats, that neighbours say is home to families with children, was a convicted rapist.
One of the neighbours claims she raised concerns with Kāinga Ora months ago about the sex offender living in the city fringe complex but says nothing was done.
He has now been charged with sexually abusing a young teen.
The agency said it did not know about the man’s criminal background when he was sent to live at the flats and only learned he was a rapist after his latest arrest.
Despite his violent sexual history and opposition from police, the man, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of abusing the girl, was released on bail.
He was arrested last month and charged with three counts of unlawful sexual connection with a female aged 12-16, attempted rape and attempted unlawful sexual connection of a female aged 12-16.
What a real public housing programme could look like
…imagine a different kind of Kāinga Ora.
Imagine one that builds 40,000 of its own sustainable state homes using best standards for housing to withstand climate change and bring on line such a large number of houses that it forces private slumlords to upgrade their own rentals and takes desperation out of the housing market.
Imagine a Kāinga Ora that used its access as landlord to the poorest Kiwis to ensure outreach programmes and wrap around services are available to them so that those communities can thrive rather than rot.
Imagine a Kāinga Ora that was worthy of having a Māori name.
Blame Chris Bishop for the mess Kainga ora is in.
I see his little box two storey flats in Epuni, Lower Hutt as no one wants to buy them. They are ugly little box houses Bishop wanted cheap housing yet he lives in Eastbourne. He’s also allowed for 2 -3 storey blocks of unit to tower over peoples villas and lovely charcater houses in Petone. He doesn’t care ruining people’s privacy whIle effecting their sun and natural light entering their homes. I hope people aren’t naive enough to vote him back in on the Hutt south seat.
Big sell off in Whangarei at the end of last year .Meanwhile there is an issue with homeless in the city center which is now dying .