Source: New Zealand Government
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says.
“Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social housing.
“The Ministry of Social Development has restarted the review mahi, which was paused in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 25 March 2024.
“The reviews will begin with nearly 400 tenants who are currently paying market rent and have been in their social housing tenancy for three or more years. There are also some exclusions, for example, people with dependent tamariki in their care and people who are 65 or older.
“MSD will work with the tenants who are more likely to be ready to move to private housing. We want to actively support those people who can sustain independent living – maybe in a private rental or potentially homeownership,” Minister Potaka said.
“The reviews are part of our commitment to ensuring those who need social housing the most can access it.”
MSD will work with tenants to check their situation. They will look at whether their current home meets their needs and see if they are likely to be able to get housing in the private market.
“Where appropriate, we will actively support people into alternative housing, connecting them with services and making sure they get any MSD support they may need.”
The review also complements the government’s focus on ending the large-scale use of emergency housing by ensuring their needs are better considered for social housing.
“To give people a sense of the broader scale of this issue, there are more than 25,000 applications on the social housing register – each number could be an individual or represent a whole whānau needing appropriate housing.
“This government intends to deliver on the needs of all New Zealanders including those needing social housing.”
