National’s policy statement offers pittance to the homeless at Te Puea Marae

Source: Child Poverty Action Group

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Child Poverty Action Group says that the policy statement released last week by National is a truly meagre response to New Zealand's increasingly dramatic housing crisis.

It was heralded as a national housing policy, some visionary blueprint as to how the multi-tiered housing crisis was to be tackled. The nation held its breath in anticipation, but the newly proposed policy did nothing but deflate the hopes of many.The pronouncement amounted to just a further jawboning of Auckland City Council for apparently allowing section prices to skyrocket to a point where even the housing needs of the sons and daughters of those in our leafy suburbs have become a problem of crisis proportions.

Frank Hogan, CPAG's spokesperson for housing, asks, "What does the statement offer the homeless?"

The following are fair questions:

- What does the National Housing Policy offer those tens of thousands of our most vulnerable for whom home-ownership is now as attainable as them living on a different planet?

- Particularly what does it offer our citizens, including the young couple with their two-week-old baby who came to the Te Puea Marae last week?

Plainly the answer to each question is pittance - the policy will barely register for those who are in the greatest of need.

It is time immediate relief is offered to our most vulnerable citizens.

It is time the Minister of Building and Housing and his colleagues got real about the crisis, and stepped up with substantial investment into building additional state houses.

True leadership was shown at Te Puea Marae. That is what is required of central Government - not more vistas of a planet called "Never never land".

CPAG's in-depth analysis of the 2016 Budget explains clearly where it falls short in terms of addressing the greatest immediate needs of New Zealand's most vulnerable in terms of housing and incomes.

ENDS

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