Collaborating with a government which demonises the vulnerable
On Friday the government announced IHC’s housing company, Accessible Housing, as the preferred buyer of state houses in Tauranga.
This is a shameful act of betrayal by IHC which has transitioned from a genuine community based group doing great work for disabled New Zealanders into a corporate contractor for a vicious right-wing government.
In the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis they are helping the government shaft low-income New Zealanders. They are helping the government pass responsibility for housing low-income New Zealanders to community groups which don’t have the will, capacity or resources to do the job.
I said in an earlier blog that I remember going door to door collecting for IHC back in the late 1960s when it was doing a great job with strong community support. Yet over the years it has become a contractor providing government services and while in the past it may have criticised such a vicious policy as selling state houses, today it’s a compliant corporate – not only refusing to bite the hand that feeds it but actively assisting the most appalling National government policy – selling state houses.
IHC will argue that the houses will still be required to be rented as so-called “social housing” with income related rents provided by way of government subsidy. They say they can do a better job at looking after vulnerable tenants than the government. This is not true.
IHC are parading some iwi leaders from the Tauranga area as strong supporters of their purchase. Using Maori to help provide political cover for awful policies is nothing new. When National wants to defend its most dreadful social policies it sends out its brown duo – Sam Lotu-Iiga and Alfred Ngaro – to defend the indefensible.
It’s clear the Maori leaders supporting the state house sale have not spoken to Maori in state houses to gauge how they feel about the policy. Neither have they spoken to Pakeha tenants, or any state house tenants for that matter, as far as anyone can see.
It’s just a PR sham by a vicious government and a greedy, corporate IHC.
With all the goodwill in the world IHC will never be able to deliver to all the families who desperately need warm, dry, affordable homes. The lesson from anywhere and everywhere in the world is that only governments have the resources and capacity to do this.
The deal will be a financial boon for IHC but it will make the situation that much harder for low-income families needing homes. If IHC helps the National government walk away from state housing in Tauranga it will be an enormous struggle to get another state house built in the city.
Selling state houses in Tauranga is the first step in the biggest privatisation this country has ever seen – $18 billion in state house assets. It will help Bill English post a budget surplus but the cost will be met by families living in cars, garages and under bridges.
At one time IHC would have attacked a policy like this as a betrayal of the most vulnerable families. They would have criticised economic policies that are enriching the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.
But not today. Today they are collaborating with a government which demonises the vulnerable.
I just called the 0800 line and made my complaint and I spoke to a lady who said she appreciated my call but really it sounded like she doesn’t care and phoning the 0800 phone number is not enough unless we get hundreds phoning it is not effective
I wonder how many of those pictured have been in the business of property development?
I’m sure there is no law that states one cannot be responsible for government funding earmarked supporting disabled people AND also have a property development business as well…unless of course that there is a possibility of property development happening through the charity you are working for….
Shit man…all gets a bit confusing! What a tangled web…..
These people should be ashamed.
We are normalising poverty.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/new-zealands-most-shameful-secret-we-have-normalised-child-poverty
Paul, thanks for that. Very useful!!
yes NaZtional are spreading their toxic poisonous greed everywhere now john, best we get behind the Group suing the Housing NZ of selling our state houses that we as taxpayers own without our consent.
Exactly Cleangreen.
Well said Mr Minto !!!!
I have a soon that has autistic and these states are not designed for him to live they need a lot of space . one the problems with ihc is they think they speak with all people with intellectual impairments and there families .
IHC was start for people with intellectual disabilities but they have become white and middleclassed . I help the ihc and when I need help they wount help .
They only represent communities and that because of systemic advocacy
What these charities don’t understand is that they are being manipulated by the right wing privatisation agenda.
Yes, the charity gets the houses, but then at a future time, they must compete with other ‘social housing’ companies i.e. Serco, who of course once the public are softened up to sell the family silver get the sales contracts.
Then the charity loses their reputation helping the right wingers and then ultimately they will destroy social housing as a right for all, destroying the welfare state and making money from vulnerable people, for companies and cronies.
IHC are just one of many NGOs that have followed the global trend, to adopt a “corporate” organisational culture, thus trying to appeal to the market players on a neoliberal market for anything and everything. You do in this day and age get NO recognition and attention, if you are just simply doing the work you are therefore, and are doing it in simple, natural ways, you have to “show off”, with imagery, organisation and PR tactics, hey, we are to be taken seriously, we are “branded” and “worthy” to be taken seriously, when it comes to agreements and contracts to do things.
This “culture” is everywhere now, it has corrupted society, we have CEOs and bosses, who show off with nice suits and ties, with dresses and fancy hairdos, hey, we are part of the “leaders” and thus “competent”, while often enough they are not.
We live in a time of endless BS and “presentation” being more important than what is being done by organisations. We live in time where charities, other NGOs, feel forced to dance to the tune of the corporate market, to be part of the scene and game, so they can do things they have traditionally done.
So the IHC is in my view corrupted, same as many other organisations, they have people probably on high salaries, and totally detached from the persons they claim they support and look after. They will drive flash cars and go around visiting, sit in studios of radio and TV stations, justifying their existence and spreading their “mission” and approaches, always mindful on appealing for more funding, by donations, by government funding and so forth.
They have fallen to their knees in front of a neoliberal, laissez faire and capitalist government, and think by playing to their rules, they can still be credible and deliver the services they think they need to deliver. But by doing so, they dance with the devil, and gradually sell their souls, that is what the IHC has done with taking this step. Shame on them, shame on them, they should never be allowed to lie in their graves in peace, once they pass away, those that signed up to this betrayal.
With this and other rich immigration we create the crisis we have, but who dares speak the truth, you will be shot down as being “racist”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZs2i3Bpxx4
The NZ left has long lost its focus, is lost, unless more wake up to the challenges we face.
We will not solve the housing crisis as long as we invite the rich from all over the world to come and buy our homes, companies and souls.
John Key’s paradise for the rich, he loves inviting the rich from China and other places, so he does not feel to “lonely” being a rich prick in NZ. Sadly most ordinary Kiwis suck up to this and think they can pick up and eat a few morsels that drop by the plate at the top of the table. A hopeless nation of weak and simple minded, who give a corrupt government credit and trust it to look after them, insane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFJBgsr939c