Vol. 78/No. 46      December 22, 2014

At the march and rally of 300 people, staged as a funeral for 344 “pensioner units,” many tenants spoke about their concerns for the future. Local church leaders played a prominent role in the action.

In spite of the protest and opposition voiced at public hearings, the council voted Nov. 27 to sell these units.

The moves at the local level reflect the push by the New Zealand government to deepen a decades-long drive to make state housing a temporary emergency measure for only the most destitute of working people. As part of this drive it is selling off housing stock and looking to charities and other agencies as private providers of social housing.

“There are 365 people in these 344 units,” tenant Audrey Durose told the Militant Nov. 8. “Once they are in private hands there is no guarantee they will remain housing for pensioners [retirees]. The council may secure a guarantee for existing tenants, but what happens after that or if the provider decides to sell them? There is no protection.”

Access to affordable housing has become a central debate in New Zealand politics. State housing was a social gain won in the late 1930s as a byproduct of workers’ struggles under depression conditions. Thousands of houses were built, with the stated aim of providing quality housing for workers, for a lifetime, at rents lower than market rates.

Since the 1990s, successive governments, seeking to open up new avenues for capitalist profits, have whittled away at state housing. Most recent policy changes include measures to review all tenancies every three years and subjecting tenants to more restrictive government housing criteria. The government is also extending subsidies to private companies that profit from building housing that is supposed to be affordable for working people, while selling off government-owned housing stock. The government agency Housing New Zealand owns close to 70,000 houses, some 15 percent of the rental market.

Louise Hutchinson qualified as high priority on the “A list” for a house, but more than four months later she is still waiting. In frustration she posted her story on the Internet, headlined “End homelessness in Napier, Hastings and throughout Ikaroa.” She then joined with others to organize a Sept. 17 protest. “I wanted others to be able to share their experiences, and figure out what we can do about it,” Hutchinson told the Militant Nov. 9. After the news coverage and protest she was offered a house that was “not fit to live in. I refused it and I am still fighting for a decent home for my family.”

Housing New Zealand has not kept up maintenance on many houses as it presses redevelopment plans.

Hutchinson got support from a group called Tu Tangata Maraenui in the neighboring city of Napier. They have organized protests and sent delegations to Parliament over the redevelopment plans of state housing in their working-class neighborhood.

“We have been fighting for the last two to three years. I am in my 80s but I’ve still got steam in me,” tenant Wilma Rowe told Militant supporters when they knocked on her door in Hamilton Nov. 8.  
 
 
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