This week we have two nationally respected leaders of Community Housing providers, Cate Kearney or Otautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT) and Jill Hawkey from Methodist Mission (MM). Both of the organisations they lead have been renting to low income member of our community for decades. In OCHT’s case since the 1920’s.
There has been resistance to Community Housing (which also involves the Crown agency, Kainga Ora) building new housing throughout New Zealand. This is a worrying trend. I’m not sure what makes people think that their property values will diminish because people currently struggling to find decent housing are being housed near to them, in new units.
When we think about it. When the house down the road is bought by a property investor for renting purposes do the neighbours demand that they should have a say on who the tenants will be? The property owner will tell them quite correctly to get stuffed.
The Community Housing providers, who only act in the interests of improving our community, have to smile and put up with the sort of nonsense which the media produces.
Come along this week and listen to Cate and Jill traverse the challenges facing our communities as they struggle to meet the incredible demands to ensure that our society meets the human right of everybody to have a decent home.
This person is an indication that currently we are getting it wrong:
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