We have been out of print for a little while but I am happy to report that Laura G. has returned to T.P.A as a full time worker, part of her role being editor of Housing News T.P.A is committed to ensuring that housing is kept high on the political agenda. We have organized a forum "Housing People; Creating Healthy Communities". Community groups, government agencies, health workers, businesses, property investors and the general public have been invited to participate in the forum. We are hoping that the day informs, excites and incites people to consider ideas and possibilities and solutions to house people and create communities that meet all people's needs and lifestyles. T.P.A has received many calls from tenants living in cold, damp, draughty and mouldy conditions. Research clearly shows the importance of having decent, warm housing to the health and well-being of inhabitants, particularly children and the elderly. Lets put the research into action and create the conditions necessary for everyone in the community to enjoy the right to healthy housing.
August 1999
The Newsletter of Tenants Protection Association (Christchurch) Inc.
just over a year ago the National Health Committee reported to the then Minister of Health Bill English, through their document "The Social, Cultural and Economic Determinants of Health in New Zealand: Action to Improve Health". The report stated that housing was unanimously considered a major health issue by a broad range of individuals and groups; public health and other healthcare professionals, community groups, voluntary groups and charities, and Maori community health workers. The National Health Committee considered action in this area to be a high priority and identified five areas as being needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The report also stated that there is a need for greater recognition of the relationship between housing and health. The National Health Committee made the following recommendations:
Twelve months down the track progress has been extremely slow. A case in point is the Community Housing Ltd. which set up an 0800 phone line in November 1998 for citizens to call when concerned about housing conditions. It was initially advertised for "New Zealanders" but since it's launch the service has been limited to the Auckland area. Lack of staff to respond to the issues being presented in the regions has meant that in reality the potential to resolve serious housing/income issues has been lost. There is much to do and greater. collaboration is needed between the welfare, health and housing sectors if a real difference is to be realised.
By Ann Currie
Health Promoter
Crown Public Health
Canada has consistently been touted in international quality of life surveys as one of the best places to live in the world. That result might not be shared by the approximate 100,000 people lacking any shelter on any given day in the country. Social agencies put that figure up when the so-called "relatively homeless", those people that live in unsafe, unclean or inadequate housing, are considered.
In a recent Macleans magazine article (March 8,1999) reporter Chris Wood travelled across the country to document how many groups are responding creatively to the problems of the homeless. Here are some of the projects he discovered.
In the city of Vancouver, city officials estimate that around 600 people sleep in parks or alleys or in emergency shelters every night and more than 6000 (mainly drug addicts and mentally ill people recently turned out of institutions) find shelter in run down single room occupancy hotels (SRO's) which are neither secure, safe or clean and which do not allow visitors after 8 pm. To address these problems a local residents' association and the British Columbia Housing Commission joined together in 1991 to take over the management of one of these SRO's. They immediately made necessary repairs, got rid of the demeaning no-visitor policy, and dropped the monthly rent to what the province's welfare system provides for shelter. But this hotel is also different in the other services it offers to tenants: regular visits from public health nurses, needle exchange for addicts and a methadone program. The model is so successful for the community that other SRO's are undergoing similar transformations with the help of non-profit groups and social housing agencies and are including such initiatives as a community cafe and a garden. The resident's association also created a low cost voicemail service for people who have no telephone account. For three dollars a month the users of this service can keep in contact with potential employers or landlords, other social service agencies as well as friends and family. According to one woman who has lived on the streets and in SRO's for ten years, the revitalised projects are helping their lives, "We're finding out not everyone is against us. Other people are finding out we're not monsters".
Children and young people who are running away from home because of violence or tension can find refuge at a centre in the city of Winnipeg which offers not beds but a place to play basketball, pool or watch TV, and get involved in activities and development programmes. The centre stays open all night on weekends and holidays but children under 12 are given a lift to a safe place to stay for the night. Winnipeg has many abandoned houses which are slowly being renovated by welfare recipients who are teaming the required skills and which are then being offered to low income families in a project called Just Housing, organised by the Winnipeg Community Education and Development Association.
Canada's biggest city, Toronto, has a very diverse range of homeless people from drug users to economic migrants, classic drunks, elderly, solo mums, youth at risk, psychiatrically ill ...every vulnerable group in society. Local community groups and local government agencies are tailoring specific solutions to specific needs. For example, a shelter has been built for hard-to-house women with a psychiatric disorder which provides beds in "cubbies"- alcoves designed to resemble the back alley nooks and crannies where most of these women are used to sleeping. They are also supervised by staff who are experienced in dealing with behavioural issues that wouldn't be tolerated in regular shelters.
Another shelter in the city specifically targets young, single homers mothers. In this facility, the women are offered shelter, advice and support with parenting skills.
A former factory now owned by a community group and funded by the local government offers affordable and permanent accommodation to men and women who have mental or physical disorders and have been institutionalised for years. Each person gets a room and shares kitchen and bathroom with four to six others. Rent is adjusted to the income of the tenant. Residents in this "house" value the freedom of being able to come and go as they please and do what they want, when they want.
There are many creative ideas for dealing with homelessness when community and neighbourhood groups work in partnership with governments to action and fund the initiatives. In further issues of Housing News we will explore community based housing projects in New Zealand.
Christchurch in winter gets smoggy! Every year the air pollution exceeds the World Health Organisation's standards for at least several nights in the winter. In response the Canterbury Regional Council proposed a ban on burning coal which was to take effect last October. A coal ban would affect 18 000 residents (mainly low income) according to census figures. The move was challenged by the Coal Producer's Association and public submissions are now being heard. It's important that the air quality in Christchurch be improved. Debate continues on how best to implement that goal. At Tenants Protection Association we have received several inquiries from tenants and other community organisations on how a coal ban would impact tenants. Will landlords be required to replace coal burners and open fires if the law is changed? What form of heating will they be required to replace them with? According to the Residential Tenancies Act Section 45 (1) (C)
"Every living room shall be fitted with a fireplace and chimney or other approved form of heating"
(Housing Improvement Regulations 1947)
Therefore if a coal burner or open fire is operational at the beginning of a tenancy, and a coal ban is implemented then the landlord would be required to replace the coal burner or open fire with an alternate form of heating. Financial assistance is available to landlords through the Christchurch Clean Air and Energy Efficiency Incentives Programme to discount the installed cost of flued gas heaters, electric heat pumps, complying wood burners, fixed electric heaters and night storage heaters. Discounts are also available on ceiling and under-floor insulation, hot water cylinder wraps and hot water pipe insulation and draught stopping measures.
Community Energy Action is a non-profit group that also offers subsidies on insulation to landlords who provide low-cost rental accommodation. Housing New Zealand has found that 27% of its housing stock in Canterbury needs to have its heating system converted to be compliant with the regional council requirements. It has been replacing coal burners with electric fan heaters and in some cases compliant wood burners in its houses. At City Housing (Christchurch City Council public housing) 90 % of the open fires have been converted to electric heating. According to Errol Waller, City Housing Manager, 111 elderly residents are not encouraged to use coal or wood for heating because of the possibility of injury due to heavy lifting, etc. In his submission to the regional council on the proposal to ban the domestic use of coal, Labour MP Tim Barnett warns of the difficulties low income households could face when heating a home with electricity. He says the unpredictability of electricity pricing might make budgeting difficult and people may under-heat as a result. A sole dependence on electricity will leave a household with no heating in a power cut. Preliminary findings from two years into the Household Energy End-Use Project , which is looking at how much energy New Zealanders use in their homes and how they use it, suggest that houses in this country are often colder than the World Health Organisation's recommended healthy temperature of 16 degrees. Coal ban or not , the proper heating, insulation and maintenance of houses and the education of landlords and tenants on the links between health and housing is critical to the development of healthy communities.
Given that an astounding 45% of all New Zealand households get all or part of their household income as benefits from WINZ it is essential that there not be discrepancy in the application of benefit entitlement. Tenants and landlords both need consistent advice. If problems such as payment delays or unclear rules of eligibility persist, then private sector landlords in the low income rental business will move further into renting to upper markets as is already happening. If this trend continues along with the ongoing sale of Housing New Zealand properties then low-income tenants will quite literally be left out in the cold. As the following article indicates, landlords are growing increasingly frustrated with WINZ. It is vital that landlords and tenants groups get together with policy makers at WINZ to come up with ideas that will benefit all involved. One proposal could be to extend the direct payment service that Housing New Zealand tenants can access through WINZ, to tenants of private landlords as well.
Excerpts from the article "WINZ Not Winning With Landlords", written by Andrew King, are reprinted with the permission of Residential Property Investor, August 1999 issue.
Many WINZ customers are tenants who are having a difficult time making ends meet and are not receiving adequate service from this government department. Tenants are also landlords customers, and as such, we need to take an interest in their well-being. It is also a fact that when tenants suffer, it is usually only a matter of time before the landlord suffers too. Specific problems centre on WINZ giving poor advice to tenants and being too slow in providing help at critical times, leading to landlords being forced to evict people who are otherwise good tenants.
One case involved a tenant changing to a split allowance -part student, part DPB- which resulted in his allowance being stopped for a period and he was unable to pay the rent. He was told by WINZ to see the landlord with the idea of changing to pay rent in arrears or paying the rent off over time. A second case from Hawkes Bay involved a family where the husband had been made redundant and WINZ advised that there would be a one-week standdown before receiving a benefit. The family set aside money to pay the rent, but after three weeks no benefit had been received and they were then advised that they did not qualify for six weeks. WINZ told them that the landlord could carry debt for
this time and they could pay off the arrears when they eventually received their benefit. The landlord was not in a position to carry the debt for a period of this length, however, and was also concerned about the ability of the family to pay future rent, rental arrears and all the other mounting debts that were accumulating over the period. The family was a very good long term tenant, but the landlord saw no other choice but to evict them and find new tenants. WINZ said its role "is to refer any such inquiries on tenancy matters to the appropriate experts, either via the local Citizens Advice Bureau or directly to Tenancy Services". But Glenn Morris, secretary of the Nelson Property Investors Association, says that this is not the case. In an interview with a WINZ "team leader, he was shown a computer screen with a standard reply for case managers on tenancies. The standard reply for beneficiaries seeking help with rent payments was that the tenant had to be three weeks in arrears before the landlord could take action to evict them. Clearly this is not the case, as a 10-day letter can be actioned the day tenants are late with the rent. Other cases have seen WINZ ignore 10-day letters issued by landlords and only start to action claims when it has reached the Tribunal stage. Payments have then been approved, but not before an eviction notice has been issued. Morris has received several reports from social workers about WINZ staff telling applicants who apply for food grants that they cannot get a grant unless their rent is in arrears.
When we contacted WINZ, we were told that "we (WINZ) have special types of extra help which people can apply for to meet various types of emergency, essential and immediate needs. This is last resort assistance, considered in cases of hardship, when no other options are left to meet the cost". It would appear that many WINZ case managers consider that avoiding paying rent is an option that needs to be taken before hardship assistance is considered.
One previous area of concern with WINZ has recently been resolved through the action of the Nelson Property Investors Association. Previously, beneficiaries applying for a rental property had to produce a signed rental agreement before they could be advanced any money they required for bond and rent. These advances were not guaranteed, however, and meant that landlords were reluctant to offer a dwelling to beneficiaries who didn't have sufficient funds to pay for the property upfront.. Many landlords and tenants have been caught out by expecting the payment, only to be told "no". According to Glen Morris, making tenancy agreements conditional on getting an advance from WINZ is not an option as this is against the Residential Tenancy Act and is therefore illegal. The MP for Nelson, Nick Smith, has confirmed with the association that: "In future, WINZ will provide clients with a form filled out by the case manager approving rental payments and bonds subject to sighting the signed tenancy agreement. The form is an original numbered document that should give reasonable protection to you when you provide the signed agreement." This is a good move for both tenants and landlords and shows the benefits that can be achieved through good communication with decision makers and associated groups.
Perhaps the continuing problems with WINZ is an opportunity for landlords and tenant groups to get together in a common cause that would benefit both parties.
New research from the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project shows that the only group to increase its income in the last 15 years is the top 20 per cent of earners. According to the project joint leader, Charles Waldegrave, this country has the fastest growing gap between rich and poor of any developed country. The biggest increase comes from the top 10 per cent of earners whose incomes increased by 43 per cent. Reasons for the growing gap include the reduction in social welfare benefits, tax cuts targeted at middle and upper income groups, the rise of unemployment and the impact of the Employment Contracts Act. Housing costs have increased while wages have remained low. A survey of over 400 families by the Lower Hutt Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit found that of people with a household income under $25 000 and children under 15 years of age, nearly half (44%) paid 40% or more of their income on rent or a mortgage. Almost half of these households lived in overcrowded accommodation. According to Mr. Waldegrave high quality investment in education and training along with a social and economic vision that values citizenship are what is required to move this country successfully into the future.
One of the recommendations that came out of the "Housing People" Forum, was the establishment of a network to explore housing issues. The Christchurch City Council is also keen to contribute to a regular networking with social agencies. It has been suggested that the Christchurch Housing Network be reinstated to provide a regular forum for ideas and information sharing about housing related issues in the Christchurch region. The first meeting of this Network, which will discuss the structure, membership and objectives for such a group, will take place: Wednesday 29 September Oxford Baptist Church 12:00 - 2:00 pm Outcomes of this meeting will be reported on in next month's issue of Housing News