We can understand, to a certain extent anyway, that people on low incomes in Auckland might have trouble finding housing. Housing in Auckland is expensive, there are simply not enough houses, landlords are selling up and the majority of immigrants flock to our largest city. That is why the main focus of the farce that once was Kiwibuild was on Auckland: because the need was seen to be greatest there.
Fast forward a couple of years and the problems in Auckland seem to be much the same as ever, but the rest of the country has had the gall to catch up. If you had told me 2 years ago that we would be seeing pensioners in Invercargill living in tents because of a lack of housing, I would have said you are as nutty as a Green party member. Sadly, I would have been wrong.
Meet John.
After working his whole life as a teacher and bus driver, a Southland retiree never thought he would not have a home to live in.
But on a low income and having to deal with health problems, 69-year-old John does not have a proper roof over his head.
He is in the same position as hundreds of Invercargill residents who are living in inadequate housing.
After living in a tent for three months, he was given a caravan.
I never thought we would see this happening in places like Invercargill…Dunedin…Westport…Blenheim. This is unprecedented.
At the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, John was a primary school teacher living a comfortable life.
But when the school he had taught at for 12 years changed direction he found himself unhappy in the job.
As the leader of a Scout group, he held a P endorsement licence which meant when he was offered a job as a bus driver, he grabbed the opportunity.
Because he did not feel secure in his job, he decided to get rid of his mortgage and sell his house.
Some will say that it is his own fault for selling his house, but renting used to be a viable option, when there were landlords prepared to take the risk. This government has put an end to that.
He rented for a few years but had to move out of the flat he was living in last year when his landlord decided to sell the property.
Two heart attacks and surgery costs depleted his savings and, to make the situation worse, the taxi company he worked for shut down.
His search for a new home came to nothing due to a shortage of rental properties, competition for homes and the cost of renting.
The housing crisis has been building for years, and cannot be blamed entirely on this government, but their anti landlord policies are entirely to blame for the lack of rental housing available. This is also the reason that an unprecedented 12,000 people are now on the waiting list for state housing. Many of those would be living in private rentals, if only there were some available.
At the start of the year he was put on the waiting list for a Housing New Zealand property but still had not been placed anywhere.
Worried about his situation, a group of friends decided to help him buy a caravan so he could live in a better place.
Southland Community Housing Group estimated in April that 500 people did not have adequate housing in Invercargill and 150 were on the waiting list of Housing NZ.
Group member Dave Kennedy said Invercargill only had 350 state houses and many of those on the waiting list were a high priority.
A Newspaper
We are going to see a lot more of this. It is not only families that have problems with housing, because most of those can get help from the appropriate government departments, but older people have fewer entitlements. He will have his pension, yes, but that is it.
This is what happens when you have a government that puts ideology ahead of reality, and that wants to run a communist state where everyone lives in a dingy state flat, but doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to make it happen – yet.
So where are you on this, Jacinda? Oh yes, sorry. You had an exhausting holiday official visit to Tokelau last week, and now you need the weekend to recover.
