The Far North trust trying to help needy families into their own homes says it can not afford to give them the keys until it knows for sure it will not lose its charitable status.
Housing Minister Paula Bennett said the government could look at a law change to make sure He Korowai Trust remained a registered charity, if it sells renovated state houses to homeless whanau.
"I guess we can give them a fish, but we can't give them a net," Ricky Houghton says. Photo: RNZ/Lois Williams
He Korowai Trust said the problem was a recent court decision which found home ownership conferred a private benefit on the families, and went beyond the definition of a charitable activity.
Trust manager Ricky Houghton said he was grateful for the vote of support from the minister, but said it would be too risky to let the nine families move in without certainty.
He said the trust could rent or lease the homes to whanau without endangering its charitable status, but its entire, government-subsidised housing project was based on home-ownership, and wrap-around support for the families, and the trust needed legal certainty before it could let them move in.
"They've waited three very long, wet, cold, sick winters for this, " he said.
"They're desperate to get in there. They're ringing me every day, but I know that until this matter's resolved it would be very awkward and very unfortunate for those families in the event that the Charities Commission didn't allow us to retain our charitable trust status."
The trust bought nine old Auckland state houses, and renovated them for homeless families in Kaitaia. It was about to buy another 10.
But its lawyer has confirmed with the Department of Internal Affairs that if the trust allowed families to pay off the homes and own them, it could lose its charitable status.
Mr Houghton said the trust had to be a registered charity to secure grants from the Lotteries Commission and other funders.
"Essentially, we can help put a roof over these families' heads, but we can not assist them into affordable home ownership.
"So I guess we can give them a fish, but we can't give them a net."
Mr Houghton said the trust wanted to offer people a hand-up, not a hand-out, and he was gutted by the prospect.
He said the whole idea of the project was to get people out of garages and caravans and into places of their own.
"To give them a quality of life they could only dream of, and to get them on the bottom rung of the home ownership ladder. Those were our collective dreams and aspirations, and I feel like somebody's just gone and trampled on the whole lot.
"I feel like going and finding a nice little dark room and having a little cry"
Far North Mayor John Carter said the possibility that the trust might be deregistered if it sold the houses was an example of idiotic regulations.
"This trust does a tremendous job for our community. They're well respected - Ricky and his team are just brilliant people. Our community needs these houses.
"I'm sure that there's something gone wrong in the government's system somewhere that merely with a discussion we can sort through."
No decision reached yet - Internal Affairs
Internal Affairs said it had not yet made a decision on He Korowai Trust's charitable status.
The department's deputy chief executive of service delivery and operations, Maria Robertson, said it supported the trust's work.
She said the key question was whether that work could be shown to have a wide community benefit over and above benefits on a personal level.
"If there's significant personal benefit, then the charitable question is under review."
But, she said, even if that was found to be the case, the department would not deregister He Korowai Trust straight away.
"Our view of that status does not mean they will have their charitable status removed. It simply means that we will work with them to actually support them to keep doing the great work that they're doing."
She said the department wanted to support housing charities to work within the law.
