The Government’s housing failure has clocked up a new milestone: $1 billion has been spent on emergency housing, National’s Acting Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

“This is a staggering amount of money and is emblematic of Labour’s complete and utter failure on housing.

“Labour promised they would solve New Zealand’s housing crisis. Five years on, taxpayers have paid more than $1 billion in Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants, mainly to motels, with thousands of people living in motels for months at a time.

“Rapidly rising rents and unaffordable housing have pushed thousands more New Zealanders onto the state house waiting list and into emergency housing motels.

“Motels were meant to be a short-term fix to New Zealand’s housing problems. Under Labour motels have become the solution. Emergency housing has become a get-rich-quick scheme for motel owners, and has proven to be disastrous for vulnerable New Zealand families.

“It is just shameful that around 4,500 New Zealand kids wake up every morning in a motel room.

“The Government seems to have given up on solving the underlying drivers of emergency housing need, instead opting for the short-term approach of writing a big cheque and looking the other way.

“The Government says state houses are the solution, but have allowed the state house waiting list to explode from fewer than 6000 people when National left office to more than 27,000 today. Meanwhile its state-house builder, Kainga Ora, has demolished or sold more houses this year than they’ve actually built, while only 1365 of the 100,000 Kiwibuild homes promised have been delivered.”

National would:

• Take pressure off rapidly rising rents (up $50 a week in the past year) by removing Labour’s “Tenant Taxes”, restoring interest deductibility for private rentals and taking the 10-year brightline test back to two years.
• Fund community housing providers to build new social homes and provide targeted support to vulnerable tenants. The community housing sector is ready and willing to grow, they just need a Government that will back them.
• Using a targeted social investment approach to support vulnerable individuals with effective interventions that get results.
• Support more housing supply by removing RMA barriers and working with local government to fund infrastructure needed for growth.

“Labour has failed on housing. The state house waitlist has quadrupled, rents are up $150 per week and now the Government has spent $1 billion on housing people in motels.”