December 07, 2015
Action needed to stem aged homeless tide
A warning from the Salvation Army that government action is needed to ensure those who retire after 2025 don’t become homeless.
Alan Johnson from the army’s social policy and parliamentary unit says his Homeless Baby Boomers report identifies how Ruth Richardson’s 1991 mother of all Budgets led to a decline in home ownership.
That Budget scrapped home ownership programmes, introduced market rent for state houses, sold off the Crown’s $2.4 billion dollar mortgage portfolio and cut welfare benefits.
Mr Johnson says about 10 percent of the 700,0000 New Zealanders aged over 65 live in rental houses.
By 2015 there will be 1.1 million over 65s, and more than 20 percent won’t own a house.
" They’re going to struggle to find a place in the private sector if their incomes aren't big enough to pay the rent and that's the real struggle. It's the sheer number of people which will overwhelm an organisation like the Salvation Army. It is just beyond the capability of the Salvation Army to deal with that problem. I think we need to realise this is hug problem just over the horizon. We need to start addressing as soon as possible,' he says.
Alan Johnson says many social policy settings such as pension levels are based on assumptions of home ownership which are increasingly untrue.
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