Budget 2023: It’s Time to Clear the Waitlist.

Our only way out of the crisis we’re in, is to commit to an ambitious public housing programme.

An acknowledgment of the important role of public housing in addressing the housing crisis can be seen through Budget 2023’s commitment to an additional 3000 new public homes by mid-next year. However, there needs to be a more ambitious commitment to a public housing programme if we are to clear the waitlist and match the need.

An ambitious public housing programme would see a commitment to the building and abundance of public homes, maintenance and repairs on existing stock so that homes are healthy and accessible, and an extension of the availability of public housing to more people struggling with the costs of living.

The cost of this public housing programme would be significant, but the risks of not doing so are far greater. The private market has continued to fail to house people in safe and secure housing with people continuing to live in motels, sleep in cars and live in overcrowded conditions despite more housing being built.

The housing waitlist, as of March 2023 is at 24,801 households but this does not even scratch the surface of the need for public housing with the current criteria only for those proving they are “at risk” of homelessness, and not always include those struggling to pay private rents, staying on friends’ and whānau couches, living in short-term accommodation such as hostels, or living in inadequate and uninhabitable housing.

Years of disinvestment into the public housing stock, the selling off of stock by successive governments — but in particular the previous National government — means that we have not re-built the number of public homes there were at its peak in 1993 (if we exclude those being built and provided by CHPs). All the while more and more people are unable to afford housing costs, even with two or multiple income households. Aotearoa New Zealand’s public housing stock as a percentage of overall dwellings is less than 5%, compared to 15 percent in the UK.

Current public spending on emergency housing and Accommodation Supplement are band-aids on an insecure private market. Though there is no research into the need for public housing beyond the waitlist we know that more people are spending more of their income on rent. In Tāmaki Makaurau 23% of renters are paying more than 50% of their income on rent; but even in places such as Ashburton many people will be struggling to pay rent with 13% of households paying equal to or more than 50% of their income on rent.

These conditions force people into precarious housing — couch surfing, boarding housing and emergency accommodation — temporary solutions that have become long term living situations for people in Aotearoa. An ambitious publically funded housing build programme could support people into permanent and secure housing.

The private housing market is also failing to protect people from the climate crisis. With recent flooding in Tāmaki Makaurau and many places like Tairāwhiti recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle, we need a strong public sector response. A housing system under the control of the private market means that climate solutions will mirror the current inequities in our system — the wealthy will retreat and build fortresses, private developers will continue to build unsustainably, and the rest of us will be left to pick up the pieces.

One way to ensure an equitable and democratic response is a government-run housing, infrastructure and planning programme able to build quality, sustainable, culturally appropriate, climate resilient, and future-proof public housing options to ensure that people are protected from a worsening economic and climate crisis. This must happen alongside a significant investment and support for Māori whānau, hapū and iwi housing; the building of a Te Tiriti-based housing system.

In the 1930s, the First Labour Government, confronted with an economic crisis, met public need with the creation of an ambitious state housing build programme for working class and middle income families. This served to address the crisis in housing conditions and unaffordable rents, a cost of living, but also boosted the economy. We need bravery and courage when it comes to housing solutions.

Reflecting on the devastation of the recent fire at Loafers Lodge in Wellington — our whānau and communities on low incomes, our nurses, teachers, and essential workers need access to housing that the private market cannot provide.

It is time to reassess our priorities when it comes to housing and to recommit to an ambitious public housing programme able to provide everyone in Aotearoa with secure and truly affordable rental housing options.

Vanessa Cole is a housing researcher with Public Housing Futures.