For those who rent or need social housing it is necessary to have standards requiring insulation, ventilation, draught-stopping and heating.
I’m proud a Labour-led government introduced these in 2019. But there needs to be a house in the first place!
Last year I wrote in The Star about the government halting more than 350 Kāinga Ora housing projects across the country.
This included more than 50 proposed housing units in the Dunedin electorate and about 60 in the Taieri electorate.
A proposed 41 unit one-to-two-bedroom housing complex on Carroll St is among them. It was placed "under assessment".
Months have passed and uncertainty around projects like this continue to grow.
National’s Housing Minister Chris Bishop promised to "build enough state and social houses so that there is no social housing waitlist". Now, he says they won’t increase the number of Kāinga Ora homes.
This directly results in more people finding themselves homeless.
As highlighted in a recent 1News poll, results showed nearly half of those questioned think homelessness in New Zealand is getting worse.
I will be writing to Mr Bishop to question why housing units like that in Carroll St have been left dormant, despite more than $1.5 million already being spent to develop the site.
One silver lining with winter just around the corner is the Winter Energy Payment, which will soon come into effect. Labour introduced this payment in 2018 to help with higher power bills over the cooler months.
About 25,000 Dunedin residents benefit directly from the scheme, with single-person households receiving roughly $20 a week, and just over $30 a week for those living as a couple and/or have dependent children.
We believe everyone deserves a warm, dry place to call home, with the payments helping about a million people nationwide.
The payments start on May 1 and run until the end of September.
