“ACT is welcoming the Housing Minister’s instruction to Kāinga Ora to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against repeated antisocial behaviour – a commitment secured in our coalition agreement,” says ACT Housing spokesman Cameron Luxton.

“ACT believes every Kiwi deserves to feel safe and at peace in their own home, and that the threat of eviction is an essential incentive to discourage malicious behaviour.

“Under successive governments, an antisocial minority of Kāinga Ora tenants learned they could terrorise their neighbours without consequence. Even in the fourteen months after Labour announced a crackdown on unruly tenants, just one tenancy was terminated for anti-social behaviour, despite more than ten thousand complaints over the same period.

“Today’s change in tack will be a relief to residents subjected to ceaseless noise, vandalism, and threats.

“Undoubtedly, some commentators will squeal that evicted antisocial tenants have nowhere else to go. But we already have more deserving New Zealanders on housing waitlists, living in cars and garages, who will happily take the freed-up housing.

“As in many areas, the Government is not going as far as ACT would, but it’s going further than it would without ACT. We’ll continue to advocate for stronger action, such as ensuring tenants terminated for anti-social behaviour are moved to the bottom of housing waitlists, and requiring Kāinga Ora to engage with Police if they are made aware of illegal activity.”

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