Housing 'critical’ in Chch, says Labour

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 6

Housing 'critical’ in Chch, says Labour

With winter coming on. the housing situation in Christchurch is “critical,” according to the Labour , members of Parliament in Christchurch. In a joint statement yesterday, they called on the Minister of Housing (Mr Quigley) to abandon his “doctrinaire approach” and reverse . his “disastrous policy" of running down the Housing Corporation. The lack of reasonably priced rental housing was the most urgent problem facing their constituents, they said. “It is common to see constituents who have been on the list for a State house for 18 months or two years. There are close to 800 families on the list in Christchurch. Applications are being added at the rate of about 30 a week, but only

10 families are being housed each week." Some people were even discouraged from applying for a Housing Corporation home. Sources of emergency housing were under strain from the demand. The Labour members had found people who lived in motor camps and others living in cramped quarters with relatives or friends. Sleeping on the floor Was common in some areas, said the statement. Some people lived in old . flats without adequate facilities for children. Some premises were "positively dangerous." High rents and increasing unemployment were making the housing situation w’orse, they said. The housing crisis in Christchurch was the direct result of Government poli-

cies. Low-income earners had been the first casualty. The Housing Corporation was “hopelessly short” of houses and money. Only 22 units would be built in Christchurch this year, compared with 40 last year and 500 five years ago. The statement called for a “crash programme" to build State houses. This would also stimulate the building industry and provide employment. “What the Minister of Housing fails to understand is that the free market is never going to provide adequate supplies of rental accommodation at reasonable rents. That is why the State got into housing in . the first place." the statement said. “The time has come for the Minister to abandon his doctrinaire approach and deal with the practical problems of people."