Amy Adams
Wellington, June 29, 2017
Social Housing Minister Amy Adams has welcomed the 2015 Social Housing Valuation as the first step in building a more sophisticated understanding of the factors that affect vulnerable New Zealanders.
She issued the following statement this morning:
Our first valuation of New Zealands social housing system sets a benchmark to measure progress and understand how effectively new initiatives are helping those most in need.
The valuation lets us measure success by how we change peoples lives. It is a part of our broader Social Investment approach where we are building a better understanding of what works and for who, and where to invest funds to make the biggest difference across housing, welfare and the broader social sector.
The valuation reflects people who were in a social house or on the register from July 2014 to June 2015.
Projected costs
According to the report, the projected lifetime cost of adults in social housing is $16.4 billion. About 85% of this cost relates to future Income-Related Rent Subsidy payments for tenants in social housing. Those in social housing are expected, on average, to spend 17 years in social housing.
Other key findings of the valuation include:
People on Jobseeker or Sole Parent Support are about 70 times more likely to apply for social housing than those not on benefits in the past five years
Pacific people are seven times more likely to be in social housing and Mori are five times more likely compared to other ethnicities
Auckland is 35% of the population, but 61% of the total liability.
The average household liability is 80% higher than the rest of New Zealand.
Raising living standards
With every valuation, we will gain more evidence to invest earlier on in the people who need it most, with the support that will make the most difference.
The more we can support our most vulnerable people to become independent, the better their lives will be.
That is what we are doing with initiatives such as Housing First and Sustaining Tenancies, and with transitional housing that includes social support as part of the package.
We want to make sure that vulnerable New Zealanders have a safe, secure place to live, and give them a stable base to access support to become more independent and improve their lives.
The 2015 valuation can be found at www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/evaluation/social-housing-valuation/index.html
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