Speech to the Community Housing Aotearoa Annual Conference
Introduction
Growing together. An apt slogan not only for this year’s CHA conference but also for how good partnerships between the Government, Community Housing Providers, Iwi and others can work to enable better housing outcomes for New Zealanders.
It's my pleasure to be here with you this morning as we gather and acknowledge the importance of your work as community housing providers (CHPs), delivering housing for people in need, across Aotearoa New Zealand.
I want to start by acknowledging Paul and the team at Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) and of course, Ali and her team from Te Matapihi – your commitment to the social housing sector and delivering better social housing is inspirational.
I also want to acknowledge previous speakers here at the conference, including Minister Bishop yesterday.
In my speech today, I’d like to briefly cover what we’ve done and doing in two key areas of relevance to you all here today.
Emergency housing and the goals achieved
When I, and my colleagues, came into government on this date one year ago, I moved into an empty office on the fourth floor of the beehive. When I met my housing team on day one, I said my biggest priority for housing is to get tamariki out of emergency housing.
Yes, the costs were too high at one million dollars a day, and yes there were too many people. Both important of course, But for me, the biggest issue was too many tamariki.
In November 2023, there were 3,342 households in emergency housing. Of that, nearly 3,600 children were living in emergency housing. (3,588 for both MSD EH and HUD CEH).
This was not at all a good use of money, nor would it have led to successful outcomes. If you’ve heard me in Parliament speaking on this issue, you’ll know I’ve said time and again that the long-term, large-scale use of emergency housing, when we came in, was a moral, financial and cultural catastrophe.
We also campaigned on this pre-election by saying that we were committed to ending the large-scale and long-term use of motels for emergency housing.
The first key change we made was to ensure emergency housing returns to its original purpose which is a last resort for those with genuine need, for a short-term, and non-recurring.
To achieve that the Government has set a target of reducing the number of households in emergency housing by 75 percent by 2030.
As the starting point for the target was the December 2023 emergency housing numbers which held 3,141 households, the target is to get down to 800 households in emergency housing by 2030.
Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora – Ministry of Social Development are jointly responsible for delivering the target, and I am proud to be the Minister responsible for leading this important mahi.
I’m very proud to stand here today to announce that as at end-October, we are now under 1,000 households in emergency housing (993 EH and CEH).
Several factors have contributed to the decline including:
- ensuring eligibility and expectations for emergency housing are clearer, so that emergency housing is targeted to those in greatest need;
- prioritising families with children who have been in emergency housing longer than 12 weeks into social housing;
- increased social housing supply; and
- continuing housing support services and products to assist people into private rentals, to prevent them needing emergency housing
The second change was to target children living in emergency housing through our Priority One category.
In March this year, Cabinet approved the policy to put adults with children living in emergency housing for longer than 12 weeks, on the top of the social housing register alongside the other two fast-tracks being those with Rheumatic Fever and Oranga Tamariki referrals.
Priority One went live on 30 April 2024 and as at end-October there were 786 households that shifted from emergency housing into social housing. A number of you hold some of those families, the overwhelming majority are being housed by Kāinga Ora.
Of those 786 households moved into social housing under Priority One, 1,608 were tamariki. This is a great number.
The third change we made is more recent but is trialling a social outcomes contract in Wellington and Hamilton (as they have the most households in EH now) and supporting singles and couples in emergency housing without children, to get out and hopefully stay out with the support from service providers. Earlier this month (13 Nov), I was pleased to announce the trial of a new social outcomes-based contracting model, for people with a diverse range of complex needs to move out of emergency housing and into permanent homes.
Wellington City Mission and Emerge Aotearoa in Waikato are the first organisations to take part.
The trial is a focused support service for 50 to 100 people who don’t have children living with them, and who have been in emergency housing for an extended period. And they are not in other housing support services such as Housing First, Rapid Rehousing, transitional housing, or part of MSD’s Navigator service.
The trial will support people to move out of emergency housing into more stable housing, rather than fund housing itself, and will run for two years.
Wellington and Hamilton were chosen because of the high number of people in emergency housing in these locations, particularly single people or couples without children. As numbers in EH have decreased significantly, this cohort makes up a higher proportion of those left in EH.
Single people and couples without children can often face higher barriers to moving into stable accommodation and are not assisted by other interventions such as the Priority One fast track for whānau with children. Some of these people have been in emergency housing for extended periods.
The trial aims to identify those barriers and provide tailored supports to help them move into and sustain stable housing.
Stable housing may include private rentals or social housing, but it cannot include housing that is considered temporary for example, hostel or backpacker accommodation, or transitional housing.
This trial will take a ‘learning by doing’ approach. HUD monitor how the trial is going and make any necessary adjustments over the two-year period.
The key elements of the trial include that it:
- is flexible about how providers deliver their services and focused on outcomes (achieving sustaining stable housing).
- includes outcome payments that will be made when the provider has supported a person to sustain stable housing over time (for example 3 months, six months and 13 month)
- includes a flexible funding element where providers will tailor their approach and solutions to fit the individual situation. Tailored approaches are important because, for many of these people, standard approaches have not worked.
Examples could include support for enrolment in primary health care, budgeting, employment and counselling services, support to open bank accounts and manage a tenancy agreement, gain a driver’s licence, or re-engage with family and community support. It will be up to the service providers to determine how best to support each client in the trial.
The effectiveness of this trial will be measured through an independent process evaluation, and rapid impact monitoring in partnership with the Social Investment Agency. These will inform investments in future social investment outcomes contracting initiatives for housing and elsewhere.
Māori housing partnership with the CHP sector
Since becoming Associate Minister of Housing last year, I have already seen many examples of the partnership between Government and CHPs delivering warm, stable homes for whānau Māori.
An example of this partnership is Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi, a Māori CHP. They are working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to deliver Te Kohekohe.
This development is the largest community housing development in the Far North with 60 units, but also the country’s first housing complex co-owned and co-built between iwi and a council-owned organisation. A living example that connects to this year’s theme – growing together.
More recently, I had the pleasure alongside my colleague, the honourable Chris Bishop, to celebrate an opening of a 12-home project in Porirua with Māori CHP – Te Ahuru Mōwai.
As Tā Matiu Rei (Chairperson of Te Ahuru Mōwai) said at the opening: “Twelve more whānau will have homes in Porirua as a result of this mahi, and we look forward to providing many more warm, dry, safe and beautiful homes in the near future.”
We cannot forget the amount of support Te Matapihi and CHA give to CHPs and this is evident in the increased number of Māori CHPs – currently 35 registered Māori CHPs out of 87. This means about 40 percent of the total register is made up of organisations that self-identify as Māori.
Te Matapihi are in a unique position to engage closely with government and Māori. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience that they provide to Māori CHPs in particular.
CHA supports the growth and development of CHPs; enabling them to provide social and affordable housing has been a complementary element in our partnership to housing solutions.
Māori housing partnership
Wider than the Government’s partnership with Māori CHPs is our partnerships with landowning Māori entities for affordable housing, whether that be rentals or home ownership or papakāinga.
Today I’m also proud to announce that the Government has given the green light to provide funding of $81 million for 12 resource consented projects to enable about 200 affordable rental homes. These homes will be in partnership with Māori landowning entities and they will support the many whānau who struggle to pay a market rental.
Social Housing
As you know, delivering better social housing is a priority of the Coalition Government as part of our housing agenda for New Zealand.
If you look back over the past 12 months there are some notable changes in the numbers, Notably, there are 21,294 people on the social housing waitlist – which is 4,139 fewer than at the end of October 2023.
On the transfer register – people who are already in social housing and want to move to social housing in another location - is currently 4,836 people which is 257 fewer than at the end of October 2023
However, some to statistics are harder to shift. Of the people who live in social housing – 49 percent were Māori, 37 percent European, 18 percent Pacific Peoples, and the remainder comprised of other ethnicities.
As you know, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is responsible for the administration of the Social Allocation System which determines eligibility and priority for social housing based on the applicant’s assessed need.
The process as you are aware is for Kāinga Ora and CHPs to advise MSD, which is responsible for managing the register of eligible applicants, when a social housing property becomes vacant.
MSD then shares a short-list of the 20-30 highest priority applicants whose housing need and locational requirements match those of the vacancy.
The housing provider then selects the highest priority applicant they consider best suited to the property and undertake a pre-placement interview before making a formal property offer.
MSD’s role is to assess and prioritise need and share with housing providers short-lists of suitable applicants, but the decision to make an offer of social housing rests with the landlord / provider.
MSD and Kāinga Ora have sought to strengthen connections at the national and local level through more frequent and focused interaction between senior leaders to improve the efficacy of the social housing placement process reflecting the Government’s priority on quickly supporting whānau with children out of emergency housing into suitable and sustainable housing.
Social housing allocation (Priority One)
As we work towards achieving this target, our first focus has been to move whānau with tamariki out of emergency housing motels and into more stable housing through our Priority One policy.
The Priority One policy is a key election promise from National, enabling whānau with tamariki who have been in emergency housing for 12 weeks or more to move into social homes.
At the end of October 2024, we have had solid success with Priority One, which has seen 786 households – including 1,608 tamariki - moved from emergency housing into social housing since its introduction in April.
For example, there was a mother who said her seven tamariki were thriving after moving from an emergency motel into social housing after a long period.
The mum said: ‘The children have been able to stay in the same schools and are doing well and the older children are starting to think about future careers. With our new home and a quiet place to do their homework they can focus on their schooling and make the most of every opportunity that comes their way’.
I also recently met a dad who had been moving between homeless shelters, a caravan, and his car. He told me that moving into his home earlier this year has been life-changing for him and his daughter. His teenage daughter is now settled, achieving excellence at school and he told me that his daughter now has goals in life.
Accessing emergency housing
MSD has strengthened the verification processes for those entering emergency housing (EH), by reviewing eligibility settings, and introducing new obligations.
MSD is looking more closely at whether someone applying for emergency housing has contributed to their housing need, if they can stay in their current accommodation, whether they have previously paid their emergency housing contribution, and their expectation to look for and accept offers of suitable accommodation, including private rentals and transitional housing.
Where people aren’t meeting their responsibilities, they may not be able to access or stay in emergency housing.
The Government has sought to mitigate risks associated with tightening the gateway for emergency housing in a number of ways.
We have continued investment in EH support services and additional financial products to support people into sustainable homes. We are changing policy settings to enable housing growth, and funding CHPs to build 1500 new homes.
In addition, there is ongoing work underway to assist people transitioning from state care.
As part of the wider programme of work, MSD has received funding to continue support services, such as housing brokers, navigators, and ready to rent courses.
We’ve also expanded how we can help people stay in their home or get a new place by making housing support products available to more people in a wider range of situations.
That brings me to our latest innovation in the emergency housing space.
Conclusion
Paul and Ali you are helping us chart a remarkable course for the delivery of social housing by community housing providers in Aotearoa. My deepest thanks to you both and all of those who attend the Community Housing Aotearoa conference and your commitment to this important mahi.
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.