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January 28, 2015
Housing prescription leaves families in cold
Waatea Team
Posted On January 28, 2015
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says John Key’s prescription of selling off state housing won’t solve the housing crisis.
At a lunchtime state of the nation speech in Auckland today, the Prime Minister revealed his government intends to sell between 1000 and 2000 houses to community groups or the private sector over the next year, and up to 8000 by 2017r.
It will also have another 3000 tenancy reviews of state house tenants who could afford private rentals.
Ms Turei says an under-supply of houses and problems with affordability won’t be fixed by changing the landlord, whether that is the Salvation Army or iwi groups.
"If much of the housing is sold into the third sector like community organisations, they will have a more compassionate approach than the current Housing New Zealand approach and the government so it would work better for those who have access to that housing, but they won't be able to engage in a major house-building project. It will be about improvements and maintenance of existing housing stock, and that will still leave many thousands of families out in the cold," she says,
Ms Turei says National has painted state housing as being for people in crisis, whereas they were originally built for working class and middle class families.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH METIRIA TUREI CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjU4MzU=
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