7 December 2015

Social housing delivery just woeful

The Government’s announcement of new social housing delivery by NGOs is woefully inadequate compared to the high levels of homelessness, overcrowding and slum housing, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.

“The Government has announced 508 new housing places yet there are tens of thousands of people who are homeless, living in campgrounds or in squalid private rentals.

“This is the politics of small gestures from a Government that has done nothing to tackle the causes of the housing crisis and little to ease the hardship of its victims.

“The promise of another 1,000 places means they have even scaled down from the 1,810 places they earlier proposed.

“What it does show is that the Government does not need to sell off state houses. By working with groups like the Salvation Army they can support the building of new houses even if the numbers are modest.

“The state house sell-off won’t deliver a single extra new home and is driven by pure ideology from a Government that wants to palm off the job of providing state housing for Kiwis in need, Phil Twyford says.

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