The Government’s state house policy

Although this story is headed The Government’s State House Policy, one can look in vain at National’s published policy documents for any detail about state housing.

And so the Government is dodging, side-stepping and prevaricating at every turn, while systematically selling off state houses or virtually throwing them at charities, churches and iwi, while changing the name to “social” housing. Any community housing provider who steps up will be welcomed with open arms.

There is nothing wrong with community groups housing our old and young and most vulnerable. For example, The Community of Refuge Trust, run by the Baptist Church, does a fine job in this field.

However, state homes are our homes, a legacy of the world-famous welfare state run by the first Labour Government. They should not be sold off for private profit.

Ponsonby News investigated half a dozen blocks of state houses in Great North Road and Tuarangi Street, Grey Lynn. These are just below the Grey Lynn shops on Great North Road, in the area once colloquially known as Chinaman’s Hill. Locals are concerned about the block at 702 Great North Road, completely boarded up for months. There are four empty units there, while hundreds of homeless cram into garages, cars and sheds.

Housing New Zealand has not responded to Ponsonby News’s request for information about this block - why have they been empty so long, will they be demolished, what will replace them, will part of the land be flogged off to a developer, are they earthquake damaged, have they had P houses in them, what has happened to the tenants, will the same number, or more, be housed when, and if, this block is restored?

I did eventually receive a call from a Housing New Zealand person called Olivia, who told me she couldn’t tell me anything, citing the Privacy Act. I must admit that made me very angry.

These properties are now in the Mt Albert Electorate, where the MP is David Shearer. I visited Shearer in his office and told him of the concern in the area about the loss of those boarded up units, told him too of the rumours circulating about P houses, structural damage, possible earthquake issues, and the concerns that tenants in nearby units had that they might be the next to be evicted.

Shearer was aware of the empty units, and sent me a photo of himself outside number 702 Great North Road. It had been taken before my visit and we attach it to this article. He is asking questions of Housing New Zealand and undertook to get back to me when he has answers. He has also placed written questions to the relevant ministers on the parliamentary order paper.

David Shearer’s office did get back to me the following day with some information. The block at 702 Great North Road is being refurbished, I was told (it was structurally unsound) and will be re-let by November. This begs the question - what about the other nearby blocks? Are they structurally unsound too? They are of the same construction. Will they be refurbished or demolished, or what?

The new social housing model seems to be about splitting up existing state housing land and houses, selling off some to developers for private profit, and rebuilding some “social” houses, but seldom as many as are needed to accommodate the desperately needy.

It is a sad society that can’t or won’t put a roof over everyone’s head, while allowing the inequality gap to widen.

Remember that this National Government’s first move when it won power in 2008 was to reduce tax for the wealthy and increase GST for everyone. They called it a fiscally neutral decision! It was blatant neo-liberalism - in other words, let the market rip.

Although the exponential house price rises, particularly in Auckland, have everyone stumped, house prices in Auckland have doubled every 10 years since at least 1990. Of course it shuts out first home buyers, and up till now has advantaged speculators and overseas purchasers who buy and sell houses with absolutely no tax implications, in a mad, modern, Monopoly fashion.

But those Auckland house prices, bizarre as they have been, should not stop a compassionate government from housing its old, its young and its most vulnerable. In the chase for the all mighty dollar, some of our ethics and morality have gone out the window. (JOHN ELLIOTT)