Never before released data shows there has been a huge increase in the number of people in severe need waiting for a state house, National’s Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.
At risk applicants on the housing register are ranked on a scale of 1-20, with ‘A-20’ being the most at risk. These are people with high health needs or domestic abuse victims who desperately need a home.
Ms Willis says the data she has obtained through written questions shows the number of people in the top three risk categories has gone from 57 people in December 2017, to 2100 today.
“In December 2017, only three people met the criteria for highest risk, and on average they waited less than a week to be housed. Today that number is 198, and they’re now waiting an average 207 days for a home.
“This data proves what those working with New Zealanders in need have been saying for months – more and more people are being squeezed out of the private rental market and we have more Kiwis than ever, classified as at severe risk, desperately waiting for a home.
“The waiting list is growing four times as fast as the Government is building houses. This is hopeless.
“The Labour Government and its housing policies have failed these New Zealanders. It needs to get all hands on deck focused on building homes for those in need, including community housing providers and private developers.
“The simple fact is Kainga Ora can’t keep up, it’s time to call in reinforcements.
“The Government must stop imposing more costs on private landlords to prevent people from going onto the state house waiting list in the first place.
“Labour now has a litany of failed housing policies behind it. It should admit defeat and adopt National’s Emergency Response Bill to release more land for housing with the urgency required.
“Otherwise we will only see this list grow with more Kiwis in desperate need of a home.”
Note: Below are the relevant WPQs.
Table One: The number of primary applications on the Housing Register by priority and position, broken by quarter ending December 2017 to March 2021.
Notes:
- The Housing Register provides the number of applicants assessed as eligible for social housing who are ready to be matched to a suitable property. This only includes applications on the Housing Register and does not include applications on the Transfer Register.
- This only includes priority A and B applications. The A and B priority applications used in these tables are as at the end of the quarter and may have changed prior to this date.
- Priority A Refers to applicants who are considered at risk and includes households with a severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately.
- Priority B Refers to applicants who have a serious housing need and includes households with a significant and persistent need.
- The priority and position may change throughout the application’s time on the Register.
- Priority and Position are not a sole determinant of the order people will be housed as a suitable house will also need to be available needs may include requirements such as number of bedrooms, accessibility requirements.
- To protect confidentiality the Ministry of Social Development uses processes to make it difficult to identify an individual person or entity from published data. These data tables have had random rounding to base three applied to all cell counts in the table.
- A value of one or two may be rounded to zero or three.
Table Two: The median wait time for people B8-A20 from 2017-2021
Notes:
- The Housing Register provides the number of applicants assessed as eligible for social housing who are ready to be matched to a suitable property. This only includes applications on the Housing Register and does not include applications on the Transfer Register.
- This only includes priority A and B applications. The A and B priority applications used in these tables are as at the end of the quarter and may have changed prior to this date.
- Priority A Refers to applicants who are considered at risk and includes households with a severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately.
- Priority B Refers to applicants who have a serious housing need and includes households with a significant and persistent need. The priority and position may change throughout the application’s time on the Register.
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