PUBLIC PROTEST AGAINST SALE OF STATE HOUSES IN TAURNGA TO BE HELD ON 16 JULY

The Tauranga Social Housing Action Network is at present leading protest action against the government’s proposal to sell off Tauranga’s Housing New Zealand housing stock.

Vanessa Kururangi of The Tauranga Social Housing Action Network says they have decided to take action to promote public discussion over what will be potentially a major privatization of government owned assets in the Tauranga area with up to 1200 HNZ properties being tendered for.

Tauranga Social Housing Action Network has arranged a public protest to take place in Red Square in Tauranga on Saturday 16 July from 1 pm.

Speaking at the protest will be Labour MP Phil Twyford, Greens MP Jan Logie, Merivale School Principal Jan Tinetti , Vanessa Kururangi on behalf of the Social Housing Action Network and some local social housing tenants.

Vanessa says that with the tenders for the purchase of Housing New Zealand houses in Tauranga having recently closed, and the government due to make a decision of any sale or lease in the coming months, it was felt that this was the last chance for locals to become properly informed about the proposal and to send a message to the government as to whether they agreed with it.

The Social Housing Action Network feels that there are a number of key aspects of the proposed deal that it is considered the public should be aware of.

• The proposal is to sell or lease the majority of the 1257 Housing New Zealand houses in the Tauranga area.

• These properties have a book value of $321m.

• However, any purchaser will not have to pay book value with the government willing to leave in a ‘capital investment’.

• If sold or leased the new owners will be required to make the properties available to those who the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) assesses as being eligible for social housing.

• However, in the agreement with the purchasers there will be an annually increasing number of houses that MSD can release from this commitment.

The Social Housing Action Network feel that it is important for the public to consider the reason the government has given for the sale is to ‘reconfigure’ its housing stock so that it has the “right kind of houses in the right places”. In Tauranga it is said that there is a shortage of one and two room properties and there is an intention to purchase 70 additional such HNZ properties over the next few years. There is also said to be an objective of transferring houses to Community Housing Providers to “encourage innovation and better combinations of housing”.

Given this reasoning given by the government Tauranga Social Housing Action Network believes that there are some serious questions that arise over whether the large scale sale of government owned houses in Tauranga is justified.

With regard to the perceived need to ‘reconfigure’ the Tauranga state housing stock, from the current data the local HNZ properties appear to be near to fully tenanted. In fact the growing housing shortage in Tauranga would be making the need for social housing more acute than ever. In these circumstances even if there is a need for more smaller properties of surely this can be meet through the current purchasing program, or perhaps by selling some larger houses and replacing them with smaller properties ? In any case, the bulk selling down of most of the housing stock does not seem to be a solution.

Further, if there is a need to increase the involvement of community housing provide why not allow these providers to make available more of their own properties to MSD? If there is a need to sell some of the local HNZ stock to community providers would it not make more sense to just transfer a minor portion of the stock to see how it goes? This is especially given that this is very much an experiment with apparently no detailed analysis carried out to support the contention that private providers will be more efficient in delivering social housing outcomes.

In this regard, there is particular concern that amongst the various parties involved with the three registered bidders for Tauranga properties, the only party who apparently has experience running social housing in New Zealand, the Waiarapa based Trust House, has withdrawn citing the perceived risks to private and public investment. Two of the remaining bidders are largely overseas based organizations and the third a provider of homes to the handicapped.

A further general concern is why Tauranga is being picked on as a trial for the process? There was also a proposal for a similar sell down in Invercargill where a declining population may have resulted in a genuine surplus of HNZ properties. However, this proposal was pulled through lack in interest. By contrast, surely the increasing housing shortage in Tauranga would suggest that we should be one of last places to trial a sell off state houses.

On current timetabling the government hopes to finalise any sale of properties in the third quarter of this year. As such, the Social Housing Action Network considers that there is an urgent need to send a message to the government that there are serious concerns about the whole process and it should be reconsidered.

Vanessa Kururangi expects that they will get good support across the community for the protest on 16 July.

ENDS

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