The state of housing in South Auckland

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Sat, 01 Oct 2011 2:00p.m.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley

Housing Minister Phil Heatley

The Government is moving to improve the lives of those living in Auckland’s most impoverished region, South Auckland.

With the population in South Auckland expected to blow out to half a million in the next 30 years, the Government has outlined plans this week for new and better state housing.

A third of South Aucklander’s live in state houses and a fifth live in over-crowded homes.

Now the state landlord Housing New Zealand hopes to renovate nearly half of its 31,000 state houses in Auckland and build another 1400 over the next five years.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley joined The Nation this morning.

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Comments

05 Oct 2011 05:10p.m.

Ty Williams wrote:

@Stephen Perry. Yes well said indeed and hey I have a great idea. When we privatise the state houses and pay off the deficit. We should wrap up the mortgages of the old state houses and call them sub-prime mortgage packages. Then, standards and poors can come along and give them a triple AAA rating... LOL

03 Oct 2011 07:24p.m.

Sue Henry (Housing Lobby) wrote:

State housing is a central part of New Zealands welfare system. To remove it or make it user unfriendly is not helping those who cannot help being poor. The National Government policies in the 1990's are similar to those being trotted out again by the current Minister of Housing. The 1990's saw many older single people who got caught up in this same dogma, we saw more suicides, deteriorating health and a atmosphere of despair that no one in their twilight years deserve. The current batch of elderly people being targeted by the governments policy are returned servicemen and/or their widows and senior citizens. Many have lived in those state houses for 50 to 60 years and at this late stage it is immoral and even evil to put this kind of pressure on these genuine kiwi citizens. If government wish to acquire these homes for their developer mates, surely they can wait for just few more short years and take over these homes when they become vacant. On behalf of all the elderly state tenants I wish to thank Duncan Garner for a excellent interview and factual programme.

02 Oct 2011 07:21a.m.

Eve wrote:

You are in a state house because you are such a low wage that you cannot afford to rent in the real world, why is it that these people are allowd to produce more children than they can afford to feed on their current wage. There should be a tougher guideline.

01 Oct 2011 10:59p.m.

Davo wrote:

@Stephen - nonsense, the welfare system is never at fault. It's the laziness and mentality of individuals that create welfare dependency, not the system's very existence. Abolishing the welfare state means people who are sick and disabled and who are geniunely unable to work are forced to rot in the gutter. That is morally deplorable. And so is libertarianism.

01 Oct 2011 10:21p.m.

katrina wrote:

Making housing cheaper to buy does not necessarily mean the rents will be cheaper on rentals. It is supply and demand that effects the price. Landlords try and target their rents a little higher in some areas to attract good tenants. While there are plenty of people who come into the country and can afford to pay good rental money this will keep the prices higher. There would have to be a considerable amount of people in an area suddenly purchasing and leaving the rental market to make the rental prices drop. If all of a sudden there are a heap of people suddenly buying then the purchase prices will go up.
basic economics.

01 Oct 2011 09:42p.m.

Pat Newman wrote:

A pathetic performance by Phil.... both in the interview and more so as Minister. This interview is about South Auckland but believe it or not he is proud of the disasters his policies have caused in his own electorate... and he is proud of it......

01 Oct 2011 09:42p.m.

Pat Newman wrote:

A pathetic performance by Phil.... both in the interview and more so as Minister. This interview is about South Auckland but believe it or not he is proud of the disasters his policies have caused in his own electorate... and he is proud of it......

01 Oct 2011 08:18p.m.

Stephen Berry wrote:

David...if private housing were made cheaper then it is logical that rents will drop also.

01 Oct 2011 07:51p.m.

george wrote:

Well said Stephen Berry you are exactly right.

01 Oct 2011 07:49p.m.

David wrote:

Stephen Barry, for once I would like the right to stop thinking about itself or it's rich mates and start to think about the welfare of those in the real world. Cutting excess fat in local government, reducing taxation, and changing laws will not help the thousands thrown out of a home- its just playing around the edges of a major problem. It is outrageous to give up the only major alternative to homelessness for many vulnerable women and children to help middle class families who want to close the deficit and have less tax. By privatising social housing, the government would perhaps make housing cheaper, but still unaffordable for the tenets already unable to enter the private market, making the poorest families homeless so those wealthier than them, or outright investors, can take their homes.