Source: Radio New Zealand
Dwell CEO Elizabeth Lester said the results had been “astounding”. RNZ / Richard Tindiller
A Wellington social housing provider reports great results from its partnership with Downtown Community Ministry (DCM), but does not have enough homes to meet demand.
In partnership with DCM, Dwell Housing Trust had housed 16 rough sleepers since the end of January through the Housing First programme.
The organisations had funding for 40 placements, but struggled to find willing landlords and the right homes for their rough sleepers.
Dwell chief executive Elizabeth Lester said the results had been “astounding” for the first lot of tenants housed under the scheme.
“It’s the foundation for everything and it goes beyond just the home,” she said. “Once they have that stability, they’re not spending their days focused on survival and worrying about where they’re going to lay their head that night.”
Dwell sourced housing and DCM offered wraparound care, such as help setting up bank accounts, or getting into work or study.
“Dwell has decades of experience in property management and DCM’s speciality is really working with people,” said Lester.
She described one tenant experiencing major health improvements and another moving off benefits and going into study.
This had been made possible by Housing First, a government initiative that allocated funding to people who had slept rough for more than a year, and had high or complex support needs.
Lester argued that the cost of housing and supporting rough sleepers was a preventative for higher spending in other social areas. Research showed participants in Housing First spent less time in hospital and mental health units and had fewer criminal charges and higher incomes.
“We’re spending the money anyway, and we’re spending it in a way that is wasteful. It is wasteful spending money on unnecessary hospitalisations,” she said.
“We should be investing it, and that’s what we try and focus on, that this is an investment in New Zealand’s infrastructure rather than rather than bottom-of-the-cliff-type spending.”
Lester said the funding did not cover building more social housing and Dwell did not have enough of its own.
As a result, she said it was quicker to go to the private rental market to look for homes.
Wellington currently had an oversupply of rental homes and rent in the city fell by 6.3 percent in March, but finding the right home can take time.
‘Beggars can’t be choosers’
“We’ve got funding for 40 homes and we are moving as quickly as we can, and we’ve found 16,” said Lester.
DCM boss Natalia Cleland said they were looking for “bespoke properties”.
“It might not be that we would take any vacant property that’s on Trade Me at the moment, but we’re looking for something that would be safe for somebody to live in. And that means different things to different people,” Cleland explains.
“So ideally, we’re working at matching people with their houses based on a little bit, based on their need and their wants, and a little bit based on their priority.”
She understood people might not agree with this process and that it takes time to find the right place.
“I know that, when people hear that, there might be the sense of ‘but beggars can’t be choosers’.”
However, Cleland argued that letting people have a choice in where they live and matching properties to their needs has the highest chance of success.
Landlords ‘once bitten, twice shy’
New Zealand Property Investors Federation spokesperson Matt Ball said some landlords he had spoken to who liked the idea of providing homes to rough sleepers.
“The appeal of it is because you’re helping the local community. It’s a giving back thing.”
He warned that being a landlord to vulnerable people was not for the ‘”faint-hearted”, after some landlords had been left “once bitten, twice shy”.
“[Rough sleepers are] a higher-needs group of people, and there’s a higher risk of damage and disruption, and a higher chance of not getting paid rent.,” he said.
Ball explained that some landlords had been promised support by charitable organisations – which do not include Dwell – but were left high and dry, after letting to rough sleepers,
“People are saying that the extra support, when the rent is not paid, hasn’t come through or when damage is done, the landlord has been left holding the bill.”
Cleland said this negative stereotype made it more difficult to find landlords for unhoused people.
“The connection to homelessness and antisocial behaviour and street begging, and just sort of tying them up all into this one umbrella is really unhelpful, because actually, not everyone who sleeps rough exhibits antisocial behaviour,” she argued.
However, she said that the Housing First model did address landlords’ concerns by guaranteeing full-market rent and providing free property management. Cleland said that there were more frequent inspections in Housing First properties than on the private market.
“It’s actually a really wonderful model that works for both landlords and for tenants.”
Lester said that Dwell were professional property managers.
“We have very happy landlords. We always pay our rent on time and we really look after people’s properties.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
