Waiting list trebles in three years

The number of people on the waiting list for public housing reached a record of 23,687 in March, newly released figures show.

The number has trebled in the past three years and it grew by 428 households in one month.

Emergency motel stays have also grown, with 5315 people staying in one during March – despite a move by the Government to start charging for them.

National MP and housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis said the situation was a ‘‘disgrace’’ caused by spiralling rents in the private market. ‘‘The numbers just get worse every month,’’ she said.

‘‘Behind the figures are families and individuals who are bearing the brunt of an underlying shortage of housing. More and more people are ending up in emergency housing motels as a result.

‘‘Living week to week in unstable and often unsafe conditions – there are now thousands of families raising their children in these situations. It is a disgrace.’’

Even as the Government has

poured money into new state and social homes, exceeding the March build target by 800 homes, it has not been able to keep up with an explosion in demand.

In March, the Government secured a home for more than 700 households on the list.

Those on the list can expect to wait a while, as the median time to get them into a house is 118 days. This is a significant drop on the

February median of 183 days.

Those on the wait list are overwhelmingly considered high priority, with 91 per cent in the ‘‘priority A’’ category. About half of the households on the wait list were people living alone, while a third were sole-parent families.

Half were Ma¯ ori and more than half were under the age of 40.

Public Housing Minister Poto Williams said the Government was still playing catch-up after years of neglect from National. ‘‘The housing crisis we inherited was decades in the making,’’ Williams said.

‘‘Where National sold off state houses for nine years, we are building them. And we are building them at pace. We are on track to fund and deliver 18,450 new public and transitional housing places by 2024. The Government’s Large Scale Projects are set to deliver a mix of 40,000 state and market homes over the next 10 to 15 years.’’

She also said a ‘‘culture change’’ at the Ministry of Social Development meant more people were coming forward.

‘‘Our Government has made changes to ensure the register reflects the true state of housing need in New Zealand.’’

area, including predator control and park management. But the vast majority of the funding should come from central Government, through the Department of Conservation, because the sanctuary would be national asset, Nash said at the meeting.

‘‘Any future threatened species sanctuary would need the Department of Conservation to lead on the work,’’ he said.

DOC, which co-funded the feasibility study with the council, was conducting a biodiversity assessment using their own experts to understand the potential benefits for species.

DOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment after yesterday’s council meeting.

Senior regional council official Wayne O’Donnell told the meeting that some philanthropists had expressed interest in backing the sanctuary after seeing ‘‘Fight for the Wild’’, a documentary film and podcast series exploring the notion of a Predator Free 2050, made by Radio New Zealand.