Too many small Kiwi children moving house

Auckland Council says data showing nearly half of New Zealand’s children moved house at least once before their second birthday is a sign that renters need more security on the length of their leases.

The main finding of the University of Auckland’s Growing Up in New Zealand report - Residential Mobility Report 1: Moving house in the first 1000 days, is an unexpectedly high level of residential movement in young families – much higher than an equivalent UK study.

The report identifies housing tenure as the key determinant of whether a child moves; that is, those in private rental accommodation are most likely to move.

Auckland’s Deputy Mayor, Penny Hulse, said the survey provides evidence that achieving a stable housing situation is a major challenge for families with young children who are renting in Auckland.

“I am disturbed by the report’s findings that such a high proportion of our most vulnerable, being children, have unstable accommodation in the first years of their lives,” said Ms Hulse.

“This situation is not acceptable on any level. Auckland Council’s Housing Action Plan identifies the need for more secure rental tenure as a key priority. We are calling on the government to urgently address this issue and put some options to the community on how this can be achieved,” said Ms Hulse.

“Security of tenure for renters was a major focus of the recent Auckland Conversations event ‘What’s wrong with renting?’ which attracted close to 600 people, showing this is an issue that matters to Aucklanders”, said Ms Hulse.

Growing Up in New Zealand is a contemporary longitudinal study tracking the development of approximately 7,000 New Zealand children from before birth until they are young adults (the majority are in the Auckland and Waikato regions). Today’s release is the fifth substantial report from the study and the first in the new ‘Residential Mobility’ series.

For a link to the Growing Up in New Zealand report, see: www.growingup.co.nz/reports

ends

© Scoop Media