Money for State Housing
As part of the public projects package announced today, 124.5 million has been set aside to renovate ten thousand state houses. Commenting on this announcement Associate Minister for Social Development – Tariana Turia – said State house tenants tend to have low incomes and large families and they feel powerless when trying to get repairs done. “I’m really hoping this injection of funds will not only keep people in work, but will also bring much needed repairs and an improved living enviroment for state house tenants.”
“When the house you live in is sub-standard there are consequences for the family like ill health, poor attendance at school, all of which have wide ranging downstream effects. We have more than enough evidence to show that the social conditions of families, including factors such as poverty and inadequate housing, will affect future health.”
A consultation paper on housing published January this year by statistics New Zealand says:
The physical quality of housing is of public policy interest because of its links with individual and family wellbeing. Investing in good quality housing can result in improvements in health outcomes among groups that are living in badly constructed and older homes. Homes that need repair can increase the risk of injury for occupants; these homes are associated with cold and damp living conditions and are a threat to health. Poor health outcomes can have a flow-on effect on outcomes in other areas, such as education, paid work, and economic standard of living. More research shows that housing conditions and the neighbourhood in which a child is raised affect that child’s wellbeing. Also, evidence from a major British cohort study shows that the effects of poor housing conditions are cumulative over life.
It seems incredibly unhelpful to have such isolated budgets for all every separate purpose. Since the flow on effects of poverty [or in the case poor housing] is so apparent why can’t money allocated for educational improvement or business development be spent on housing insulation and upgrades? And when we can appreciate the long term effects in areas such as health why not other areas? For example, Instead of spending money on bigger prisons and longer sentences, spend the money addressing poverty gaps, employment and assistance for parenting.
Facebook comments: