I don’t usually start columns with a book review, but for anyone thinking about moving forward to a better future, I would highly recommend reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.
It starts with an imagined future America that is far from utopian because it is absolutely possible. It is a future with housing for all, cheap, reliable and fast public transport and a focus on innovation where it matters, including a cure for cancer and environmental solutions in a world that desperately needs some. Not everything good for America is good for New Zealand, and not everything that Klein and Thompson say applies here. However, I want to take just one subject discussed in this book and apply it to our wonderful Auckland.
Auckland has a homelessness problem, whether the current Government will admit it or not. Just taking people off the emergency house waiting list or delaying their placement cannot be the answer. Abundance explains that in America, the level of homelessness is directly correlated with housing supply. The high price of housing in Auckland resulting in part from our housing supply is untenable if we want it to be a healthy and inclusive city. One of the greatest achievements of the last Labour Government was turning the tap on to building more houses. Many have argued that, before this, we had stopped knowing how to build in this country. It took a long time to be able to turn that tap on because we had closed it. Labour incentivised investment in new housing developments and built the most public homes of any government since the second Labour Government in the 1950s. We want to do this again.
In Mt Albert, I am disturbed to see properties that were set aside for building state homes now being sold. Labour had also set aside significant funding for infrastructure, without which houses simply couldn’t be built. We see this in the new Carrington development and in Wesley. The new Carrington development will see at least 4000 homes built, and in Wesley, state housing subdivisions will be re-organised so that another 3000 houses are built.
Abundance argues that the same people who talk about inclusion and taking care of the homeless are equally capable of stopping enough homes from being built to house the very same people. I live in a street in Sandringham which was once considered a place for those on moderate incomes but now locks out most young families unless they come with a big cheque from their parents or are on very high incomes. I worry about the inequity in our society where inheritance becomes such an important factor in allowing access to our communities.
If we want to live in multigenerational neighbourhoods with people from all walks of life, we need to build more affordable housing.
There is plenty of land in our inner city if we are smart about how we build. Intensification can be beautiful and sustainable if we use our creativity and learn from examples overseas – it has to be done well. It is not enough to just cut red tape without thought, because a leaky building is a complete disaster for an owner who has just managed to afford a house or apartment. We need to distinguish between making rules that make sense (by giving us more security, like flood protection rules and building standards) and rules that are simply holding up building because those of us who are lucky enough to have a house and a nice suburb feel we might lose something. The reality is we will gain more than we lose if we reinforce our values and build affordable homes that include people from every walk of life. (HELEN WHITE)
helen.white@parliament.govt.nz www.labour.org.nz/HelenWhite
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