The recently announced 2024 Budget is set to impact the housing crisis in Tauranga and the rest of New Zealand says a community advocate.

In a recent press release, Labour claims more than $1.5 billion will be slashed from housing by the National Government.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says, “National has made the wrong choices in Budget 2024.”

Ex-chief imagination officer at Te Tuinga Whānau, Tommy Wilson, says this will heavily impact Tauranga.

He believes the city will see “more homelessness, desperation and people without hope”.

Ex-chief imagination officer at Te Tuinga Whānau, Tommy Wilson. Photo: NZME.

A cut-and-paste Budget

“The whole housing situation is a bit of a slippery slide, it’s like snakes and ladders,” says Tommy.

“You seem to almost get to the top and then bang, you come down the snake again.

“We got up the ladder of homelessness and now with what’s happening in this new regime, it seems like we’re slipping back down the snake again. I can see nothing but more homelessness coming our way.

“That’s becoming evident in Tauranga because even though I’m not at Te Tuinga Whānau, I’m very much still connected to the front line.

“There’s so much concern around people that can’t even afford to pay their mortgage anymore. They’re really struggling.

“Mortgage, rent, food, it’s compounded and housing is going to be the first bubble to burst, and we’ll see that happen really soon.

“I don’t care what political pāti (party) people wear, but I am really concerned that we are going to peak again in the housing crisis; very similar to what we experienced during and post-Covid.

“We had a crisis pre-Covid, but then Covid in many ways helped us because we knew we had to get people who were homeless inside so we could manage the isolation.”

Tommy says the need for isolation helped the homeless community because they needed to be inside. This meant bringing people into motels and hotels which Tommy says “wasn’t ideal but that actually lifted the underbelly of homelessness in Tauranga”.

“Then from there, post-Covid, we were able to look at it and say ‘Hey, we’ve got a serious problem’ and started dealing with that problem.

“The infrastructures we put in place post-Covid, we’re dealing with it. But now those infrastructures are all being taken away.

“We will see a repeat of a lot of homeless, a lot of people sleeping in their cars and we’ll be back down the snake after climbing up a really healthy homeless ladder. That’s how I see it and we’re going to see it manifest sooner than later, especially with winter and with everything else that’s happening. I don’t see any silver lining. All I see is more desperation and more people without hope.

“We can’t break the chain of rough sleeping, emergency housing and then long-term housing unless we go through those stages of the ladder.

“We keep falling back down the snakes again and surely we’ve learned a lot to know that we can create good tenants by helping them walk through those stages from emergency housing and into longer-term accommodation. And that is something we cannot let go.”

The community advocate says the 2024 Budget will mean that there will be fewer homes and maintenance funding.

“These houses that fall into disrepair inherit all the other health challenges as well, the wet and overcrowded, kids don’t go to school because it’s an unhealthy home.”

Tommy says this housing crisis is a repeat of the past in Tauranga.

“You just get them into a warm house, get them into school, the parent becomes able to work and then boom, they pull the rug out again and put the resources into the landlords in the form of tax breaks.”

Tommy says this is the reality of the chain of what happens when people can’t be in warm, safe, affordable housing.

“There has to be a better balance. I fear that it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

“We’ll see the same thing that happened before, a lot more homeless, a lot more people living in cars and a lot more emergency housing needed.

“It’s not until it becomes visible, the awareness is confronting and people demand something is done about it, until there’s an up cry from the public. Then something gets done about it and that’s going to happen again in the housing sector.”

When asked if Tommy believes National will fix the housing crisis as promised, he says “I don’t see anything there that’s going to fix the housing crisis”.

“I see a big handbrake in the great progress being made over the last 10 years under two different governments that I’ve worked with.

“Again, it’s not a political pāti, I think it’s a reality of building on what’s been achieved in the last 10 years.

“When I started at Te Tuinga Whānau it was under a National Government and then a Labour Government, and the momentum was good, but I see that all being handbraked now.

“National’s Budget wasn’t for the working poor, or the homeless or those without hope. It was more to advantage those of the higher class and especially those who are landlords.

“More so for the haves than the have-nots, in my opinion.

“It was a cut-and-paste Budget, they cut all the lifelines to those that needed help most and they pasted it to the healthy and the wealthy.”

Failed to deliver

“We inherited a housing crisis from the Labour Government. House prices have risen significantly, rents up $170 per week, homeless numbers have quadrupled, and more and more Kiwis were finding houses unavailable or unaffordable,” says Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell.

Tauranga MP, Sam Uffindell. File Photo.

“We are not going to take lectures from a Labour Party that was completely incompetent when it came to fiscal management or housing affordability and availability.

“Labour racked up huge debt funding a number of programmes that failed to deliver. Under their government, net debt increased from $5 billion to $100 billion and New Zealanders received worse services and more unaffordable housing.

“There is no proposal to significantly defer maintenance which is essential in providing a warm, dry home for tenants but a sharper focus on what gets spent, when and how.

“When I talk to people in Tauranga about housing, they are extremely relieved that a National-led Government is now running the country.

“Our housing agenda to fix the housing crisis consists of five interlocking actions.

First, our Going for Housing Growth policy will smash urban limits holding our cities back, fix infrastructure funding and financing, and introduce incentives to encourage cities and regions to go for growth.

Second, improvements to the rental market will make it easier to be a landlord, and easier to be a tenant.

Third, building and construction changes will improve competition and lower building costs.

Fourth, better social housing will better look after those who need support.

Fifth, reform of the Resource Management Act.”

Labour’s Voices

In the press release posted by LabourVoices on June 4, it says, “Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis promised big tax cuts of $250 a fortnight, said they’d fund a specific 13 cancer drugs and that they would provide cost of living relief. They campaigned on these things and asked for people to vote for them.

“Instead, they’re giving billions to landlords and more people are losing money from the tax changes than getting the amount promised. Pensioners are only getting $2.50.

Labour party leader, Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ.

“All while the cost of living continues to go up and the country goes backwards,” says Chris Hipkins.

Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty says the National Party promised to do more to fix the housing crisis, and says that hasn’t happened either.

“The National Party did this last time. Public houses got so run down that a big investment was needed to do them up, and instead of fronting up what was needed they sold the houses off instead,” says Kieran.

“They’d rather billions go to landlords who already have a house than spend money building new houses. With rents also set to increase, as forecast in the Budget, things are only going to get harder for people.

“There’s no regard here for Kiwis who need a hand, but plenty for those who don’t.”