Pity The Poor Who are Forced To Rent

The announcement of the Weymouth  affordable  housing plan  is a overdue but a major  step in improving the housing  needs in south Auckland and should be applauded .

 The sale of State housing in depopulating areas is confusing and may be a lost opportunity . We do have an increasing number of people in need of housing.  Many are highly skilled . These people could well have made a real contribution  to these communities may of them have lost much social capital  and by enticing these skilled folk wound  have been  of addressing this issue.

A long term durable bi partisan policy is what is lacking and the options for increasing number of our citizens are far from attractive and no one i know wold like this insecurity.

The life for rental tenants is variable. I have been a landlord. Our tenancy laws provide minimal security and our tax regimes provide an investment option based not on growth but on tax deductions.
The withdrawal of the state from providing income related rents and pensioner housing is impacting on all tenants.
There have always been people whose incomes are so low that home ownership is not  a realistic option, and whose housing needs were provided for. New Zealand is in a minority of western countries where the state is devolving responsibility for these people. Where do we think our nurses, bus drivers, fire fighters, pensioners and essential service folk are going to live?
 The shortage of affordable pensioner housing is critical. Many of the folk who are volunteers and provide the human infrastructure at our museums  and events are living on fixed incomes with rent consuming most of their pension.
 This situation has been exacerbated with the closing of public health facilities which means these people are first in the queue for public housing and compete with the working poor and pensioners. Address these needs by increasing the public housing stock and the housing problem will largely disappear.