The average stay for families in emergency housing has increased nearly eightfold in the last six years and is now approaching six months, National Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“When Labour came to office, the average stay in emergency housing was three-and-a-half weeks. Five-and-a-half years later, families are on average spending more than 23 weeks in emergency housing.

“Nearly 3,500 families live in motels and they are staying for longer and longer while Labour’s counterproductive policies make it harder for them to escape.

“Emergency housing is a disaster for the people living in it and a disaster for taxpayers. Since Labour came to office, taxpayers have spent over $1.3 billion on emergency housing. Phil Twyford used to say $100,000 a day on emergency housing was a disaster. Labour now spends around $1 million a day.

“Labour’s housing policies haven’t helped. Since Labour came to office, rents have increased by $175 per week around the country, the social housing waitlist has increased by more than 20,000 people, the number of families living in cars has quadrupled, and nearly 3500 families live in motels.

“Labour needs to realise that Mum and Dad landlords aren’t the enemy and stop attacking them. National will restore interest deductibility for rental properties, take the brightline test back down to two years, reinstate rules that allow landlords to end tenancies with 90-days’ notice, and change the near-automatic roll-over of fixed-term tenancies to periodic tenancies.

“These common-sense changes will help restore balance to the rental market and encourage landlords back into the market.

“National will also fix the underlying issues in our housing market by freeing up land to boost supply, increasing infrastructure spending to facilitate housing growth, and sharing the benefits of growth with local councils and communities.

“National will supercharge the community housing sector so that people who need it have a warm and dry home and are well-supported.”

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