New Zealand has lost its way on housing, says researcher

New Zealand has lost its way on housing, says leading researcher

Over the past twenty-five years, the quality and affordability of New Zealand housing has declined drastically, says the University of Otago’sProfessor Philippa Howden-Chapman in a new BWB Text.

Short-sighted and discriminatory housing policies have resulted in a society in which the poor and needy are suffering – in terms of both their physical and mental wellbeing, maintains Howden-Chapman. As recent research demonstrates the role of housing in burgeoning levels of inequality – and why an increasingly unequal society is something both rich and poor should care about –Home Truths: Confronting New Zealand’s Housing Crisis is a timely reminder of what New Zealand society has lost.

Charting the gradual withdrawal of government involvement in the provision of housing services and the growing gulf between homeowners enjoying a property boom and renters who cannot afford to purchase their own home, Howden-Chapman calls for urgent and robust regulation of New Zealand’s private rental market. Noting that in the 2014 General Health Survey, almost half of New Zealanders living in rental housing reported that their houses were damp or mouldy, Howden-Chapman reminds us that 'the fundamental qualities of housing – that it be dry, warm and safe – should not be determined by a household’s income'.

Drawing on her expertise as Director of He Kainga Oranga, the University of Otago’s Housing and Health Research Programme, Howden-Chapman points out the illogicality of the current government introducing a requirement that rental housing must be insulated – but only up to the standards of thirty-five years ago. Instead of such lukewarm gestures, says Howden-Chapman, what is needed is a strong and standardised Rental Housing Warrant of Fitness.

Furthermore, asserts Howden-Chapman, the New Zealand government can no longer afford to pass responsibility for the wellbeing of its citizens onto the market, resulting in sluggish construction rates and a lack of affordable homes. 'There is an urgent need for subsidised, high-quality and well-maintained new housing to meet the undersupply for people on low incomes.'

Citing successful models from Europe and Scandinavia, Howden-Chapman’s new Text shows a variety of ways forward in confronting the ticking timebomb of New Zealand’s inadequate, unaffordable and internationally inferior housing stock. Rigorously researched and passionately argued, this book is crucial reading for all those who believe that governments should implement robust, long-term strategic plans that have at their heart a concern for the wellbeing of all New Zealand’s citizens – regardless of whether they’re landlords or tenants.

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