Housing a health hazard

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 6

Housing a health hazard

PA Wellington National members of Parliament visiting tenants in sub-standard housing in Auckland yesterday came away shocked at conditions they saw, said the Opposition spokesman on housing, Mr Roger McClay.

The members of Parliament had gone to Grey Lynn to see at first hand evidence of a Housing Network survey, made by public health nurses, which found dozens of central Auckland families living in vermin-infested housing. Almost all were in private rental accommodation and most were paying about half their income, of about S3OO a week, in rent. “One I visited, a Tongan family of six, had no washing facilities for clothing,” Mr McClay said. There were a couple of outside tubs for the use of all five flats in the block, but one was broken. His colleague, the member of Parliament for Rangiora, Mr Jim Gerard, was particularly struck by a case where a couple and their large family were living in a single room. They had a double bed in a corner and a few roll-up sleeping pads of the type used for camping. Mr Gerard had asked where everyone slept. “They said, 'There are five or six children to sleep on the double bed and Mum and Dad sleep on the floor,’ Mr McClay said. Asked why the parents slept on the floor when perhaps the children could bunk down there, “they said ‘We can’t have that because we don’t want our children to get bitten by the rats that run round at night’.” Mr McClay said infestation by rats, mice or cockroaches was the gravest problem, affecting more than half of the 80 families surveyed. Other problems were rotting boards, excessive damp, drainage problems, broken electrical wiring and no lights. While poor housing issues had come up from time to time in the past they had usually been short-term in nature, but that had changed. "More than half of these had been there for two years and a half or more, so it is quite a longterm, deep-seated problem.” Seventy per cent of

those interviewed were Pacific Island people or Maori. Only 14 per cent were European. Many of the Pacific Island families had moved to New Zealand because they wanted their children to have a better start in life. “Unfortunately they can’t because there is conclusive evidence that more than 50 per cent of their children get to hospital before they are five with ear and bronchial asthmatic problems because of the dampness.” The families were capable of caring for their children but “they are presented with problems that they don’t know how to cope with.” Mr McClay yesterday sent an urgent telegram to the Minister of Housing, Ms Clark, saying it was in her power to help some of the people immediately. Government departments could find the landlords who were responsible for the poor conditions and “get them to fix it or prosecute them for contravening the laws of health and safety.” One week’s rent, $l5O, would go a long way towards making the accommodation Mr McClay saw safer and easier to keep clean. About 45 per cent of the houses surveyed had rotting boards inside which could be fixed easily. Mr McClay was to discuss the matter with representatives of the landlords’ association today although he did not think they could help much. “They are just in there getting money out of hovels and spending not i one cent.” “I came away agreeing with the Housing Corporation and health people there is a need for lowcost housing in Auckland, regrettably, even though we have empty houses all over New Zealand.” Until people were encouraged to go back to the regions because they could get jobs the immediate problem had to be coped with. There was a waiting list of 2000 for people in that Housing Corporation branch area. Many of the people surveyed had not applied to

the Housing Corporation. The corporation had told Mr McClay yesterday it would try to help that problem by, for example, going out to see people in the affected housing. Ms Clark said on Tuesday that the problem was not new and could not be dealt with by quick-fix solutions. New Zealand was still suffering the effects of years of neglect of State housing by the previous National Government. Since Labour came to power, the State rental pool had increased about 1500 units a year and now stood at more than 61,000. Commenting yesterday on the Opposition’s visit to Auckland, Ms Clark said the sub-standard conditions should not be used as “a political football.” “The plight of the homeless should not be subject to cynical manipulation by members of the Opposition,” she said. “I would welcome constructive suggestions. But it is a pity those members of the National Party who have inspected conditions in Auckland were not more supportive of State housing when its administration ran down the Housing Corporation’s rental stock by selling off large numbers of rental units,” she said. Housing policies of previous administrations had focused on urban housing needs and catered to the traditional nuclear family. Little was done to ease longstanding housing problems in rural areas such as Northland and East Cape. “Innovative policies introduced in the Labour Government’s first term, such as lending for homes built on multiple-owned Maori land, are now stimulating a marked improvement in housing for Maori people wanting to build homes on their traditional tribal land,” she said. Ms Clark said those in urban areas where housing was under pressure should be aware that waiting lists for State housing were shorter, and fewer points were needed for allocation in some smaller centres.