More than 40 families housed in the Southern Region

The latest public housing data for the Southern region shows that 44 households were provided with a place to call home in the last quarter.

The figures reflect households who were either on the Housing Register or the Transfer Register, which is comprised of those whose existing public housing no longer meets their needs.

The Southern region includes Central Otago, Clutha, Dunedin, Gore, Invercargill, Queenstown-Lakes and Southland.

“Our Government has been clear that the best way to tackle the housing crisis is to build more houses, and the best way to tackle homelessness is to build more public housing –that’s exactly what we are doing.

“Since coming to office, our Government has built 1,191 new state houses.   

“Each new state house and community provided home means one less family living in unacceptable circumstances, such as cars, garages and under bridges.

“While progress is being made on building more homes, we know demand for housing continues to increase. The hidden homeless that we warned about at the beginning of last year are continuing to come forward with the Housing Register increasing in the Southern region by 29 households.

“We need to build more public housing, and we remain committed to increasing supply by 6,400 new places in the next four years, 105 of which are expected to be in the Southern region.

“We are on track to achieve this goal,” Phil Twyford said.