Housing Minister Megan Woods:

“The very first time in a very long while that we have had a public housing build target that does match the current waiting list”

Excuse us Ms Woods but the facts on planet earth are the following:

• The current state house waiting list is 16,309.
• It has increased by over 3,000 per year for each of the past three years of the Labour-led coalition government.
• The budget announcement of 8,000 new “public houses” over five years (6,000 public houses and 2,000 transitional houses) means at best 1600 new “public houses” each year for the next five years.
• The government target is 1400 houses less, year by year, than the growth in demand.
• The state house waiting list is increasing at double the rate of the government’s “public house” building plans.
• There is no possible way to construe the minister’s statement as even beginning to approach the truth. The government announcement is indifferent to the desperate housing needs of low-income tenants and families.

Other important but unreported facts.

• The 8,000 public houses are NOT state houses but rely on at least 25% being provided by social housing providers.
• The government is not putting a single dollar into building new state houses – it is requiring Kainga Ora to borrow to build them despite the government being able to borrow at cheaper interest rates.

John Minto

Convenor

State House Action Network

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