The Government has made a big deal about it’s options and advice service. In recognising that only 20% of people who walk into a Housing New Zealand neighbourhood unit get housed, the service is meant to help find private sector accommodation or other options for those who aren’t high enough on the priority list to access a state house in the short term.
Of course the situation wouldn’t be so dire if National hadn’t sold 13,000 state houses in the 1990s. Labour rebuilt the stock by 8000 which meant we were still 5000 houses in deficit when we left government last year- half the current waiting list of 10,000.
But I digress.
So given the situation, it seems sensible that Housing New Zealand try and find housing solutions for as many people as possible. On this point they get no argument from me. The problem is how they are doing it, and I took the opportunity to question HNZ about this at their financial review this week.
Normally if someone comes into HNZ, they are put through a needs assessment process to ascertain their priority level. Category A represents the highest level of housing need through to category D being the lowest. HNZ in the last financial year housed all category A applicants within 10 days and all category B applicants within 16. Category C and D waiting times vary greatly but in the the lowest priority category HNZ says that some may never be housed.
What happens with options and advice is that before any needs assessment is done, the applicant is taken through a seminar about other available housing options. HNZ says the seminar provides information on the full range of housing options, including state housing. They also say that people are told they can go through a needs asessment process if they so desire and go on the waiting list.
What emergency housing groups like Monte Cecilia and budget advisory services like Budgeting & Family Support Services Mangere tell me is that they are seeing ‘option and advice’ clients turning up at their services with shocking stories.
They say that people are being pushed towards the private sector with comments being made like “you wont ever get a state house”, “you can have a private sector rental today or a state house in six years”. They say people are not being told that they can have a needs assesssment if they want one, and that they are finding it harder and harder to get people on to the waiting list. If someone insists on a needs assessment they are told “you can see our private placement person now or have a needs assessment in two weeks”. One woman did the seminar and was told she was a ‘C’ so wouldn’t get a house, and was even given a pamphlet with a ‘C’ written on it. Given that HNZ does not ask for any information from the client at these seminars it’s impressive that they can divine their housing priority category by just looking at them.
Their main concern is the number of people who have critical housing needs who are showing up in emergency accomodation after going through this service. These are people who following a needs assessment would be housed very quickly, but have been led to believe no houses are available.
HNZ say they are evaluating the eight pilots, but they have already anounced the national rollout of this service for July next year. Also, I would’ve expected that one of the most important indicators of the success of the service would be whether or not the private sector rentals are being sustained. But HNZ is not bothering to track these people so my guess is that their measure of success will simply be the number of people diverted away from HNZ waiting lists to the private sector.
And what makes it even more frustrating is that the solution is simple. As has always been the case, carry out a needs assessment first, then those that are category C or D who face potentially long waits for a state house can go through the options and advice service. This way you guarantee that the most desperate cases aren’t dropping out of the system after being discouraged by the seminar.
But when I put this compromise to Housing New Zealand they were very negative, saying that it would be a waste of time.
There is only one reason why you wouldn’t introduce this simple fix – because you actually want to keep people off the waiting list. I guess I shouldn’t really be that surprised.
That’s disgraceful
They should be made to give each and every person a needs assesment and to put anyone who wants a state house on the list. 
Yes it is spud.
Wouldn’t it make the whole of NZ happier though? People currently on a benefit would receive less (due to having no accom sub so drop in payment by about 120), so this will shut everyone up, but these people would be so much better off having more in the hand at the end of the week.
It is hard to get on the list and just couldn’t wait, so I ended up going private, had to sign a lease for the place I got so was kicked off the list.
And what makes it worse is that people on low incomes that are forced to go into private rentals, are not entitled to cheap insulation. Its not their house so they can’t claim for this. This makes the private houses more expensive as heating has to be taken into consideration. A lot of them are not insulated and are old state houses, where heat just escapes.
I’m sorry to hear that.
I can confirm this from direct experience after helping a friend leave a violent relationship. Housing New Zealand is little more than a letting agency for National Ltd®’s landlord mates.
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If National are going to sell off HNZC stock they should prioritise selling them to families who are going to live in them rather than the vulture landlords who are keen to buy up our street now that the houses are up for tender.
to Manu Caddie
For your info, the only people who are permitted to buy state houses are the families who are currently living in them.
“Given that HNZ does not ask for any information from the client at these seminars it’s impressive that they can divine their housing priority category by just looking at them.”
To judge by my own experience, I suspect that race enters into it. Aside from anything else, I recall two HNZ receptionists enjoying taunting an Indian couple with a baby, with the fact that as they were Indian, they hadn’t got a prayer!