Hunt takes watchdog role on housing human rights

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Peter Verschaffelt Paul Hunt: Hunt takes watchdog role on housing human rights

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The Human Rights Commission is working with iwi leaders to highlight what they see as inaction on Government housing.

Chief Commissioner Paul Hunt says little has been done in the two years since United Nations special rapporteur Leilani Farha declared New Zealand had not just a housing crisis but a human rights crisis.

That’s why the commission and the National Iwi Chairs Forum are holding an inquiry into housing rights.

This week it released data on three key indicators.

“What we find is overcrowding is not improving at an acceptable rate. Same with heating and cold, that is not improving at an acceptable rate as it should be under the right ti a decent home. There is improvement in relation to dampness and that is very welcome,” he says.

Mr Hunt says measuring what is being done to provide decent homes for people in terms of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a way government can be held accountable.

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