Tenants’ Action Wellington is shocked, saddened and angered to hear about the deadly fire at Loafers Lodge today.

Reports show that Loafers Lodge did not have functioning sprinklers, and according to residents in the building at the time, the building alarms were unreliable.

“Everyone deserves the right to safe, secure and affordable housing. Loafers Lodge did not offer this, and people have died as a result of the company’s negligence,” says Anne Campbell, an organiser for Tenants’ Action Wellington.

“The fact that the building had no fire protections shows a total indifference to their tenants’ safety and wellbeing. Company director Gregory Mein, property manager Murray Murphy, and any other management involved should be ashamed of themselves,” said Campbell.

Many people in the lodge were shift workers, and some were ex-prisoners who had been deported from Australia. Tenants’ Action Wellington believes some of the public commentary on their ex-prisoner status is inappropriate.

“People who have spent time in prison are still people, and have the same right to housing as anyone else. Calling them 501s is callous, especially after such a tragedy,” said Campbell.

Tenants’ Action Wellington is a grassroots group focused on supporting renters to collectively organise to improve renting conditions.

“People are dying every year in substandard housing in Aotearoa, because landlords have plainly shown that they don’t care enough to do the most basic due diligence on their properties, despite being paid hundreds or thousands of dollars per week to do so,” said Campbell.

“Landlords everywhere should be lowering their rents, doing the repairs and providing housing security, so that poor people don’t wind up in unsafe buildings run by slumlords.”

Tenants’ Action Wellington sends its solidarity and aroha to the victims of the fire, and encourages everyone to donate to the Wellington City Mission fund for them, available here.

ENDS

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