Housing activists protest at "The Block" open house this Saturday
Housing activists will be organizing a protest this Saturday at the open home event for TV3's The Block.
Auckland house and rental prices continue to rise, leaving many families behind. The average house price in Meadowbank
(where The Block is filmed) is over a million dollars. This is simply affordable.
To buy a house from the Block, a family would likely need a deposit of over $200,000. Further to that, mortgage
repayments of over a thousand dollars a week would a nurse or a teacher would have to spend their entire wage on
mortgage costs.
The reality is that the homes from the block will likely go to rich investors- working people are being left behind.
Rally organiser Ben Peterson said "Isn't it absurd that on one hand we have people sleeping in cars, and on the other we
have a TV show profiting off unaffordable homes? Housing should be a right, not a way to get ratings"
Protesters will meet at 12pm at Saint Johns College (200 St Johns Road), and then march to the open home event at 97 St
Johns Road. Everyone is welcome to this family friendly event. The protest has been called by Unions Auckland housing
committee.
"This isn't having a go at Block contestants, its just trying to say that there has got to be some action on housing. It
just doesn't make sense that hundreds of thousands watch houses get built for TV, but nothing gets done for the
homeless."
"Given that politicians have done so little to fix the problem so far, maybe John Key should step in and buy The Block
as state housing. That would be good TV"
See here for facebook event-
ends