Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty (right) and Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson (lower right) have criticised Housing Minister Chris Bishop's (left) plan for turning around Kāinga Ora. Photo: RNZ
Labour and the Greens have rubbished the government's turnaround plan for Kāinga Ora, saying it will only make more people homeless.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop revealed Kāinga Ora's turnaround plan on Tuesday, saying the total number of social houses would not reduce - but the number of homes held by the government's housing agency would remain stable from 2026 at about 78,000.
Sales and demolitions would be offset by new builds and retrofits, Kāinga Ora's scope would be reduced, and construction costs would be brought down to equal or less than market rates.
'It's all PR ... it's absolute bull' - Labour
Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the government's shake-up of the agency would only leave more people living on the street.
"I think Chris Bishop's full of it ... it's all PR and it's all about saving money, rather than housing people," he said.
"We've seen a record number of houses built under the previous government, and the best that this lot can come up with is to keeping numbers the same ... all the while the need continues to grow, all while the population continues to grow, and at the same point consents across the country for new builds has dropped yet again. It doesn't add up."
He said the government was only focused on cutting costs, but Labour had been increasingly hearing from people in need unable to access emergency housing.
"Every day we're getting examples of people living in tents and living in their cars or living on the street because this government is stopping people coming into emergency housing. Then they're using those figures to say that the need has reduced ... it's absolute bull, and it doesn't add up, and it's going to result in more people living on the street just because they don't want to spend money.
"That is on the minister, he's made a choice here."
He argued Kāinga Ora's construction costs - which the government had said was 12 percent above market rate - was because of accessibility requirements.
"Seventy percent of the people in Kāinga Ora homes have a disability, so building these homes for these people is not the average residential dwelling that the private sector would build ... they have wider doorways, they have special aspects to them that cost money.
"It's interesting, isn't it, that when they talk about things like emergency housing ... when they talk about building social housing, they talk about the cost - not once did they talk about the people that need these homes."
The Bill English review was "not based on fact", McAnulty said.
"The review was a crock. It just so happened to land in the exact same conclusion that [the] previous National government were heading - it was preconceived, in my view.
"The board of Kāinga Ora pointed out factual inaccuracies throughout the report, and this government has ignored it. Their response was to replace the board."
Bishop pointing to the 93 percent of homes being built privately was also a "cop out", he said.
"Just because the private sector is building homes doesn't mean it's going to build social houses. Let's not conflate the two. This is an age-old tactic that the government does.
"We know that unless it's specifically for social housing, these people don't get into houses."
'Just means selling off housing' - Greens
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson also said it would mean more homelessness "particularly for Māori, for Pacific people, for young people, for disabled people.
"This government, this announcement, is simply keeping the build for public housing stale and static. They are not trying to build additional and scale up public housing to where it needs to meet the crisis.
"What this government is saying is that 'we really are only interested in people who are doing okay' - the people who are struggling are going to be impacted so badly, even more harmfully, than they already are."
The government was deliberately running Kāinga Ora down, she said.
"They are throwing the homelessness issue into the private market, into the hands of landlords. That has never worked. It has made things worse for families just struggling to find a home."
She said the government had only made it harder for people to find a home.
"What we need to see is housing treated as a core public good, as a responsibility of all governments to take care of people, alongside health, alongside education ... housing is not just a way for few wealthy people to make even more money. Housing is the core, the core of how we keep each other well and how we keep our communities strong."
She acknowledged Kāinga Ora had faced difficulties, but said it was partly because of restrictions the agency faced over land redevelopment.
"That is a system that Kāinga Ora was bound by, to try and fund extra public housing and scale it up. We don't need to do that - we had a costed plan for 35,000 additional houses and to clear the public housing wait list in five years.
"Chris Bishop is showing New Zealanders he's more interested in creative accounting than in investing in real housing solutions - make no mistake, talk of divestment of properties and managing stock just means selling off housing."
