Jan Tinetti Labour MP

The Healthy Homes Initiative was established to support New Zealand families to live in warm, dry homes. A warm, dry home is central to the wellbeing of our people.

This week a three-year evaluation report on the Healthy Homes Initiative was released and has shown some incredibly positive results.

More than 31,000 children, pregnant women and 111,000 of their family members are warmer and healthier thanks to this initiative.

More than 100,000 interventions have been delivered providing education, beds and bedding, curtains, housing relocation, and heating to those who need it most.

Poor housing stock can make people sick and by improving housing conditions, people are healthier and more likely to stay in school or in work, while also relieving pressure on the health system. As a direct result of this initiative it was reported hospitalisations have reduced by 19.8 per cent, school attendance has increased by three per cent and employment increased by four per cent. A nationwide rollout of the programme is expected to be complete end of 2022.

These results support this Government's decision to expand the programme nationwide. Five years ago we inherited a programme from the previous government that was underfunded and narrowly targeted. Our government invested $30 million in the initiative and in Budget 2022 funded its nationwide extension. The programme is part of the Government's wider housing programme, which includes major investment in rebuilding the public housing sector (10,000 additional homes and counting), retrofitting state houses to bring them up to standard and extensive funding for critical housing infrastructure.