Make Submissions!

Two important Government initiated reports were released this week by the Housing Shareholders’ Advisory Group and the Welfare Working Group respectively. Both reports invite public response by Friday 17 September.

Stephanie McIntyre, Director of Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) says, “These reports recommend massive changes which will greatly impact on the lives of low-income New Zealanders. DCM strongly urges people to read the reports and make submissions to ensure the views of the wider community are heard.”

The Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand was compiled by the Housing Shareholders’ Advisory Group, set up in February by the Ministers of Finance and Housing. The Advisory Group was charged with providing independent advice to the government on effective and efficient delivery of social housing to those most in need.

The Advisory Group makes 19 recommendations that it believes will help to ensure access to social and affordable housing for all New Zealanders in the future.

The Welfare Working Group has also released their discussion paper entitled Long-Term Benefit Dependency: The Issues.

Stephanie says, “At a time when DCM service users report a complete lack of part-time work, unfortunately the prime focus of the Working Group is to consider how to reduce long-term benefit receipt.”

The Working Group discussion document asks a range of questions which can be accessed and responded to via the online submission form available at: www. ips.ac.nz/WelfareWorkingGroup. You can access the full document here as well.

You can access The Home and Housed: A Vision for Social Housing in New Zealand at: www.dbh.govt.nz and can send your comments and feedback to: socialhousingfeedback@dbh.govt.nz.

ENDS

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