State housing the big loser in Heatley’s money-go-round

new-zealand-labour-party

Tue Jun 14 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

State housing the big loser in Heatley’s money-go-round

Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 5:25 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Moana
MACKEY
Housing Spokesperson

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT

State housing the big loser in Heatley’s money-go-round

The announcement today of a $40 million fund to grow third sector housing organisations will come at the expense of state housing and the tens of thousands of families who rely on the government as their landlord says Labour Housing Spokesperson Moana Mackey.

“Nearly all of this fund is recycled money from existing Housing New Zealand programmes including the Housing Innovation Fund, the Rural Housing Programme, and funding for the acquisition and maintenance of state housing. It’s a money-go-round and state housing is set to be the loser.

“Labour supports initiatives to grow the community housing sector. But we have consistently argued that this must be as well as, not instead of, continued government investment in social housing. ”

“This announcement simply diverts funding from other programmes, including those which make up Housing New Zealand’s core business. We are also still yet to see the impact of the one billion dollars in unspecified public sector cuts on Housing New Zealand and Department of Building and Housing’s bottom lines.”

“Today’s announcement also raises more questions than answers. What will be sacrificed to pay for this new fund? How many state houses are up for transfer and what does it mean for the tenants in those homes? And will the Government be passing on the income related rent subsidy, as recommended by the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group, to those third sector groups that pick up the slack for the Government in social housing?”

“We are still playing catch up from the decisions of the 1990s National Government which hocked off nearly 13000 state houses and carried out no modernisation whatsoever. Today’s announcement simply robs Peter to pay Paul and shows that the government still has no coherent plan to deal with the ever growing levels of housing need and housing shortages in New Zealand.

ENDS

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