State Tenants to March Against Privatisation in Tāmaki
State housing tenants in Tāmaki are planning to march from Panmure roundabout to Glen Innes this Friday 2 October, 10am,
in resistance to the privatisation of state housing in their communities.
2,800 state homes are being transferred to the Tāmaki Redevelopment Company in a process of privatisation of state
housing. The Tāmaki Redevelopment Company was created under the Heads of Government Agreement in 2013, and is owned by
the New Zealand Government (59% shares) and the Auckland Council (41% shares).
While the shares are currently held publically, state tenants fear that these shares will be placed on the private
market and the transferring of these homes will lead to increased eviction and displacement.
The Social Housing Reform (Transaction Mandate) Bill, which is currently passing through government, gives MPs the power
to sell state housing without consulting with Housing New Zealand. This could have the consequence of a lack of public
knowledge of housing being sold and a removal of social obligations to house those in need.
The transfer of housing in Tāmaki is sold to the affected communities as a process of revitalisation of the disinvested
communities, however in the process of demolishing state housing and replacing it with mixed tenure housing, tenants are
being displaced in order for highly priced private dwellings to be built.
In Glen Innes, the redevelopment has already led to eviction of tenants through 90 Day notices and the demolishment of
the housing stock to be replaced by predominantly private homes.
In Glen Innes, newly developed housing is being sold between 600,000 and 800,000. Since the redevelopment begun, land
values have increased from 400,000 to over 800,000.
The government and council are selling public land and transferring state housing into the private market in order for
developers to profit from areas close to the CBD and in order to diminish their responsibility in housing those in need.
The Tāmaki Housing Group believe that this is a process of state-led gentrification and that the government are
providing valuable land to private developers to profit from at the cost of solving the housing crisis for those it most
impacts - state tenants and low-income renters.
Meet at the Panmure roundabout on Friday 2 October 2015 at 10:00AM to hikoi through the affected communities of Tāmaki
(Panmure, Point England and Glen Innes), where tenants are being evicted to make way for a redevelopment project which
is building predominantly private housing for the wealthy.
ENDS