Government wants landlords to pitch in and help end emergency housing crisis

90-day no-cause evictions and social bonding are on the slate as the government says its taking the first steps to end emergency housing

Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, March 7, written by Anna Rawhiti-Connell.

In today’s edition: more turmoil for media; Shane Jones not interested in rules around ministers and engagement with tobacco industry; KiwiRail has run out of money for the final stages of the rail network rebuild in Auckland; but first, the government’s plans for emergency housing

Image: Archi Banal/TVNZ

The ‘first steps to end the blight that is emergency housing’

The use of emergency housing, the state of the accommodation offered, and the impact of it on those who require it and cities like Rotorua were brought into stark relief in September 2022 by TVNZ’s Kristin Hall and the Sunday team. At the time, Duncan Greive called it “that rare piece of journalism so powerful it bends the entire news agenda to address it.” At its peak in late 2021, emergency housing was being used by 5000 households. In figures published by Stuff at the end of last year, the Ministry of Social Development spent $1.48b on emergency housing grants between 2018 to 2022. Yesterday, the government announced its changed approach to emergency housing. Housing minister Chris Bishop called them the “first steps to end the blight that is emergency housing”.

Families with kids to get priority on social housing wait-list

Key changes include introducing a priority one category for families with dependant children, strengthening the emergency housing verification process, a review of eligibility settings, and shortening the time frame for grant availability from seven to 21 days to one to four days. Social development minister Louise Upston says this will “enable further scrutiny before a grant is approved for a longer period.” As Felix Desmarais reports for 1News, Labour leader, Chris Hipkins said the discussion of eligibility criteria was concerning and that the government may use a “narrowing” of it “as a way of pretending that some groups of homeless people don’t exist”. Families with dependent children will move to the top of the social housing waiting list if they have been in emergency housing for more than 12 weeks.

Hope that 90-day no-cause evictions will encourage landlords to rent to families

As RNZ reports this morning, the government is hoping the reintroduction of 90-day no-cause evictions will encourage more landlords to rent to families living in emergency accommodation. They are also looking at a form of social bonding where landlords could be paid if they keep families out of emergency housing. Sue Harrison, president of the Property Investors Federation, said landlords would be open to renting to families living in emergency accommodation under those conditions. Speaking to RNZ, Manawatū Tenants Union co-ordinator Cam Jenkins said many of the people in emergency housing were there because landlords had evicted them. Speaking to the Herald’s Anne Gibson (paywalled), CoreLogic’s chief property economist, Kelvin Davidson, says rents are rising, there is greater demand and “arguably the stock of rentals is lower than it might otherwise have been”. Davidson pins that on a slow down in investors buying. The government is set to reintroduce the ability for investors to deduct home loan interest costs from their rental income for tax purposes. Davidson thinks there is further rental pressure to come, “which will be good for landlords, not for tenants.”

‘I don't think it's about creating more social houses’

Associate housing minister, Tama Potaka told RNZ no targets had been set for how long getting people out of emergency housing and into social housing or other rentals might take. He also said it wasn’t about building more social housing but getting kids out of motels. According to MSD figures, as of December 2023, there are 25,389 applicants for social housing, up 9.8% on the year before. Finance minister Nicola Willis said people would need to wait for the Budget on May 30 to see whether more funding would be provided for social housing projects. Politik’s Richard Harman writes that “reliable and well-placed Beehive sources” say that realisation is growing that the economic slowdown will “severely restrict the choices open to Willis and ministers as they consider next year’s departmental budgets” but that “National and Act cannot back off the tax cuts if they want to maintain their political credibility.”

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‘I'm not giving it one iota of attention’

RNZ’s Kate Newton follows up her look into language similarities between the tobacco lobby and ministerial documents this morning with comments from government minister Shane Jones. As Newton reports, New Zealand is a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. A clause within the Convention obliges signatories “to protect policy from tobacco industry influence and be completely transparent in its dealings with the industry.” Asked about the Convention as scrutiny grows around possible links to the tobacco industry, Jones said, “Unless it was the Cabinet Manual, I don't know anything about it, and I'm not giving it one iota of attention.”

More media turmoil pending as TVNZ set to make announcement on future of news

As Newsroom’s Tim Murphy writes, just a week after the closure of Newshub was announced, TVNZ is calling news and current affairs staff together this morning to outline business restructure plans for its news and current affairs operation. Broadcasting, communications and digital media minister Melissa Lee told RNZ’s Checkpoint yesterday that she had spoken to TVNZ bosses last Friday but wouldn't confirm the details of the conversation. Asked for her thoughts on suggestions TVNZ could cut its 6pm news to half-an-hour or cancel current affairs programming and Newshub's offer to TVNZ to team up in some ways, Lee said, “I don't think it really matters what I think about how news is actually produced or is shown in public. I think these are decisions for the broadcasters and news entities.” Writing for BusinessDesk this morning, Peter Griffin (paywalled) makes the point that for all the calls to “innovate like every other business” in a digital advertising landscape dominated by tech giants, news production is expensive, legally risky and “the most important and worthy output is usually the least profitable.” 

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