Housing crisis of 1930 s ‘recreated’

Press, 23 November 1983, Page 6

Housing crisis of 1930 s ‘recreated’

PA Wellington Homelessness had reappeared in New Zealand on a scale not seen since the 19305, Opposition members of Parliament have claimed. Mr P. B. Goff (Lab., Roskill) said during the debate on the Housing Corporation estimates that the Government had abandoned the traditional right of New Zealanders to housing at an acceptable level with “cynical and deliberate disregard.”

But the Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, said the Government had increased the number of State houses. In 1975 there were 52,437 State houses, whereas now there were 58,943, he said.

“We have increased the number of State houses since this Government has been in power and the State house waiting list has dropped from 16,400 to 11,600,” he said. Mr Goff said Mr Friedlander had established himself as the worst Minister of Housing in recent political memory. “He has recreated in New Zealand a crisis in housing not seen in the country since the 19305. “Housing finance availability has borne no relationship to housing needs and no relationship to the need of the building industry or stability. It has borne a relationship to the political self-serving needs of the National Government,” he said. There had been no winners from the Government’s policy, but the losers had been thousands of lowincome families who faced homelessness and overcrowding.

“The losers have also been the families striving to get a first home of their own who are suffering because the stop-gap policies of the Government have forced up the cost of housing.”

Mr Goff said the Minister had been the architect of a series of serious crises^,in the building industry, ★lncluding:

9 Thousands of low-income families denied access to Housing Corporation finance at a reasonable rate. 9 Huge inflation in house prices — 43 per cent over the two years to June, this year. ® Recent high interest rates. ® Rental house construction at the lowest level in the 45year history of the State housing programme. 9 A rent freeze which the Minister had not been serious about enforcing had been implemented. 9 Abolition of the Community Housing Improvement Programme. 9 Some 85,000 jobs had been lost from the building industry and related trades since 1975. Mr Friedlander said the drop in State housing waiting lists was significant. “In 1972 they (the Labour Government) took over a State house waiting list of 12,300 and that rose to 16,400,” he said.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr Palmer, said the Minister had produced a catch 22 situation for lowincome people. They could not afford to rent a house from the State or the private sector and they could not buy one either because the interest rates were so high.

“The fact is that between June 30, 1980, and June 30, 1983, the number of rental units administered by the Housing Corporation fell from 60,508 to 58,825,” he said. “That is a decrease of 1683 units in three years. “The Minister is personally and directly responsible for a serious social crisis in New Zealand — the lack of .availability of low-income , rental accommodation.” Mr D. L. Kidd (Nat., Marlborough) said it was quite clear that housing was on the move, and on the move in a big way. The Government’s measures had increased the effectiveness of assistance to first home owners by very substantial amounts. Mr M. K. Moore (Lab., Papanui) was strongly critical of policy changes in the

housing portfolio saying there had been five changes to the rules since this year’s budget. Mr M. E. C. Cox (Nat., Manawatu) said the price of houses had risen 83 per cent during three years of a Labour government. Home-owners had been paying 15 per cent for first mortgages by the end of that three-year period, he said. Mr F. McD. Colman (Lab., Pencarrow) told members that the State housing waiting list had risen 61 per cent in the last two years to March, 1983. The number of families with urgent housing needs had grown significantly during the last 12 months. He said that no juggling of the figures could disguise that. In reply, Mr Friedlander said that 92,000 young families had housed themselves in their first homes during the last five years. The opportunities were there, he said. Those people who were prepared to save and prepared to help themselves would get a house.