www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/pov99/1999B05CentralLeader.html

Central Leader, 5 November 1999

New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services has called for a national housing strategy to be developed after research found hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders experience serious housing problems related to high rents and overcrowding.

These concerns are echoed by the Auckland City Mission and the New Zealand Network Against Food Poverty who say there is a clear link between low in come, high rents and hunger.

Network spokesman Kevin Hackwell says there is a close link between low income, limited food choice and poorer health.

"The best budgeting in the world cannot solve the problem of not having enough money. Food poverty cannot be tackled unless there is some increase in benefit levels and access to decently waged work."

The network's report shows that many children will suffer long- term health problems because their parents don't have enough money to provide nutritionally balanced meals.

Dr Cliff Tasman Jones of the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation, says short term nutrient deficiencies can lead to long term health problems for children and unborn babies.

"We have good evidence to show that, long-term, the nutrition of the baby in utero is a very important factor in determining later longevity."

He says an English study studied the nutrition of foetuses and children and followed them through into their 60s. It found poor nutrition predisposed the children to heart disease, cancer and diabetes when they reached middle age.

The Central Leader caught up with Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson en route to a Trade Union conference on poverty in Wellington. Ms Robertson is one of New Zealand's few chief executives in the unique position of trying to decrease her client base.

The mission spent more than $2m on social services last year helping 200,000 Aucklanders. But that success is bittersweet, Ms Robert son says.

"In recent years the Government has placed more social responsibilities into the community's lap, while cutting funding even further. It's a vicious circle. The more adept we are at providing social services, the less obliged the Government is to support us."

Ms Robertson says the situation is getting worse for low income families faced with high rents.

The number of food parcels given out by the mission has doubled over the past few years and its annual report shows that there was a 42 per cent increase in people wanting food parcels last year, of which 71 per cent had never received one before.

The mission gives out 110 food parcels a day through its Foodlink service that supplies foodbanks in Auckland and Northland.

"That for us is one of the indicators of a community where people are struggling to survive," says Ms Robertson.

She says low income workers are increasingly seeking help to make ends meet.

'While we continue to provide support to many Aucklanders on benefits, we are seeing that people's wages fail to cover their basic expenses. Increasingly, in terms of the labour market, we are seeing people holding a number of lowly-paid part-time jobs."

Most people applying for food parcels cite high food and rent costs as their main reason for needing assistance.

Low income Aucklanders are hit by a catch-22 situation, says Ms Robertson. Inner-city housing is expensive and although suburban rentals are cheaper, people have high transport costs.

She says the issue of income levels and their relationship to health, housing and education needs urgent review by central government.

"It's something we can't ignore."

Monte Cecilia House Trust manager Elaine Lolesio says her staff are admitting more high-risk families who have been doubling up on accommodation and keeping their children home from school be cause they can't afford uniforms.

The Mt Roskill-based trust offers emergency housing for up to eight families and helps people regain independence by assisting with financial management and supporting them to move into their own homes.

Many families go without food or medical help to maintain high rents and some are forced to move in with others to share costs. It is common to see 25 people living in a three-bedroom house, Ms Lolesio says.

The overcrowding causes tension which often results in domestic violence.

Nearly 90 per cent of the women at Monte Cecilia have fled domestic violence and are often left with a string of debts after their rental properties are damaged by violent partners. The women find it hard to rent other properties because of the debts.

Many of the children haven't attended school for some time as the cost of uniforms, stationery and school fees can be prohibitive, says Ms Lolesio.

Intermediate school uniforms can often cost up to $300 and secondary school uniforms up to $400 and some schools exclude pupils who can't afford them, she says.

Children who have moved around a lot and missed school often start to exhibit behavioural problems and Ms Lolesio worries about the social implications as they grow up and start families of their own.

"The poverty trap is just capturing these families and at the end of the day the children are the ones who suffer," she says.

Monte Cecilia has a high success rate with helping families into their own homes but Ms Lolesio says affordable rents are the real solution and supports calls for a national housing strategy.

So what is local government doing to help the situation?

Deputy mayor Bruce Hucker says the Auckland City Council is developing a housing policy to ensure low income people don't get shut out of the inner-city.

He says the council has safeguarded the interests of its former tenants while selling 51 council units in Westmere, Avondale, Onehunga and Mt Roskill to Housing New Zealand

As part of the sale agreement, HNZ has agreed to take over all its obligations to tenants and not sell the properties for at least five years.

Negotiations to sell 59 flats to the Freemans Bay tenants co operative, the Auckland Housing Association, and 25 flats to the Community of Refuge Trust are continuing.

Up to $150,000 will be spent on researching an affordable housing strategy in the city, Dr Hucker says. A staff appointment is pending and detailed research plans will be worked out once the person is appointed.

The council has also determined its policies of housing allocation, reserving its rental stock for low-income tenants who have ties to the inner city. Revaluations mean most tenants will receive a five per cent rent reduction.

"What the council is signalling by its policy is that it is committed to remaining in the general rental housing field as well as providing pensioner units. At the same time there are signals that, with a change of government, HNZ may be interested in devolving responsibility to local government, so we've kept a stock of public housing we can build upon subject to policy changes."

Dr Hucker says the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy means there is likely to be pressure on land, parks and housing which could lead to more people being "exported" from Auckland City which is why it is necessary to develop an affordable housing strategy.

Dr Hucker personally supports calls for a national housing strategy because many people are paying more than half their net income on rent when the international norm is 25 to 30 per cent.

"That's why my fellow City Vision councillors are calling for retention and development of public housing not just in Auckland city but the whole region," Dr Hucker says.

"The issue is whether we as a community want to invest more in public housing. I personally think it's a disgrace that we have to have foodbanks and people depending on charity because of the dismantling of the welfare state."

Auckland Central MP Judith Tizard says many people with housing problems go to her Ponsonby electorate office for help and Ms Tizard sees a wide range of people affected by high rents.

"I cannot believe the pressure that so many families are under," she says. "If you don't have a market income you can't pay market rents."

One trend she notices is that many low-income people don't even ask to rent Housing New Zealand properties as they know they can't afford market rents. Another is older people who rented council or HNZ fiats are desperately trying to get into subsidised pensioner housing.

A woman in her late 80s who has lived in the same flat since 1948 recently went to Ms Tizard's office for help. Faced with paying a market rent of $248, she was refused a special benefit and told by a young Work and Income New Zealand caseworker to get a boarder in, Ms Tizard says.

Affordable housing is also an important issue for psychiatric survivors, says Ms Tizard.

Many are stabilised at the Connolly unit in Pt Chevalier but have difficulties finding cheap accommodation once they are released into the community.

"There's just no break for anyone who's in trouble," says Ms Tizard.

She says income-related rents are the answer.

"Central Government and local councils need to take more responsibility for building and owning housing and stop the lunatic sale of housing in Auckland Central which can be upgraded and redeveloped. I know of no other big city in the developed world that has no good public housing except Auckland."

Cheap housing has a stabilising affect on families, says Ms Tizard.

"There are hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who grew up in state houses or council flats and enjoyed stable family lives and the solid foundation that affordable housing brings. Now these same people own their own homes and are wondering how their children will afford their first home.

"The profit that Housing New Zealand is making seems to be bleeding the poor to cut taxes for the rich."

The National Government's housing policy is no stranger to criticism.

Labour's housing spokesman Graham Kelly says National has sold close to 11,000 state houses for almost $1 billion since 1992.

Mr Kelly says National is selling as much public housing as it can to cut taxes while New Zealand children con tract third world diseases from living in overcrowded, unsanitary, damp, cold houses.

But Housing Minister Tony Ryall says Housing New Zealand has spent $900 million on maintenance and about $350 million on building new houses since 1992.

"It's true to say that housing is a significant cost for a lot of low income people but we believe the accommodation supplement treats people fairly."

He says recent re search shows that half of poor people don't live in state housing any way.

"Our policy of the accommodation supplement treats people fairly no matter who their landlord is," says Mr Ryall.

Mr Ryall says the National Government al ready has an adequate housing strategy.

"We're building more houses in Auckland, forming partnerships with private enterprise so more private houses as well as state housing is being built and get ting involved in community development, providing bases for community groups."

He says state houses are being sold in areas of low demand so more can be built in Auckland.

"The only solution I've heard from Labour and the Alliance is to have cheaper rents for state house tenants subsidised by tenants of private landlords."

As for the criticisms of wider governmental policy, Social Services Work and Income Minister Roger Sowry says they are being tackled.

He says National believes the best way out of financial hardship is for people to find work so has concentrated on welfare reforms like case managing people into work, community work and focussing on what people can con tribute rather than concentrating on what they can't do.

The issue of increased demand for foodbank services is not as simple as saying people don't have enough money, says Mr Sowry.

"There are a number of reasons that people ask for food parcels including household debt, consumption patterns, financia1 over-commitment and sometimes not having budgeting skills.

"You have to remember that the vast majority of people on low incomes manage, and for those who aren't managing we've got a flexible system of assistance like the accommodation supplement, disability allowance, special benefit and special needs grants to help them through it."

He says the government has recently made more help available to low-income working families through the child tax credit, family tax credit and the new parental tax credit.

"These also give people on benefits the incentive to move into employment."

Mr Sowry says government policy is to have a safety net that helps people when they need it but doesn't trap them in the downward spiral of welfare dependency and helplessness.