$3M women’s fund established

Press, 15 August 1988, Page 3

$3M women’s fund established

Independent women wishing to leave emergency refuges or provide a permanent home for their families will receive a boost through a $3 million Women’s Project Fund announced yesterday by the Minister of Housing, Ms Clark. The fund has been created for women’s groups after an evaluation of women’s housing needs in the 1987 report, “Women’s Views on Housing.” The fund was also supported by the Royal Commisson on Social Policy. Ms Clark said the fund would provide loan finance for a range of housing options and was one of several initiatives aimed at making housing policies more sensitive to women’s needs.

“Despite the progress

which women have made in the last decade, until relatively recently women’s particular housing needs have gone largely unrecognised,” Ms Clark said. There were significant differences in the housing circumstances of men and women in New Zealand. The 1987 Census showed that 76 per cent of the men owned the house they occupied. Less than 67 per cent of pakeha women, 39 per cent of Maori women, and 35 per cent of Pacific Island women were in the same position. That was because of the price ■ of houses and women’s lower socioeconomic status. “The average female wage is about three-quar-ters of a male wage,” said

Ms Clark.

Women’s childbearing and caring responsibilities hindered their access to the labour market, reasonable income and housing.

The fund had been developed to counteract those problems, aid pilot schemes and assist women using refuge accommodation to move into permanent housine.

Interest rates on loans from the fund would range from 7 per cent to 16.5 per cent. Groups of organisations applying for the fund would have to have a legal management or incorporated society. The establishment of the fund would not prevent women applying for alternative assistance through the Housing Corporation or other lending agencies.