‘Heartless’: Kāinga Ora criticised for evicting tenants

Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) says it's heartless to punish Kāinga Ora tenants for missing rent amid a cost of living crisis.

Kāinga Ora has terminated 14 tenancies within three months due to disruptive behaviour or persistent rent arrears.

The government’s social housing agency also has 25 more applications to evict for the same reasons but is awaiting a decision by the Tenancy Tribunal.

The coalition has spurred on the increased terminations, determined to crack down on unruly tenants.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop said in a statement that disruptive tenants got the message or that “their time is up”.

"For far too long, a small number of Kāinga Ora tenants have ridden roughshod over their neighbours," he said.

"Under Kāinga Ora’s previous Sustaining Tenancies Framework, people knew there were no consequences for their threatening, abusive or damaging behaviour.

"The message to Kāinga Ora tenants is clear: if your actions are causing your neighbours to live in fear and misery, your time is up. Change your behaviour now or face the consequences."

Speaking to William Terite on Pacific Mornings, Community Housing Aotearoa Chief Executive Officer Paul Gilberd said that although 14 was a drop in the 72,000 state homes, rent arrears were unethical.

He said that leaning into rent arrears during an "unprecedented cost of living crisis" was inappropriate, especially since there were hundreds of thousands of "stressed renters", people lacking the finances to pay rent.

"That number is alarming, it's growing, and it's going to continue to drive more demand for social housing," Gilberd said.

Watch the full interview via 531pi’s FB below:

He said these numbers would increase with the government's "no cause eviction" bill proposal last month, which allowed landlords, without a required reason, to terminate any periodic tenancies with only 90 days' notice.

"[That bill] is something we disagree with strongly. There are a whole lot of health risks associated with the pressure people are experiencing as well.

"You've got over-occupied dwellings occurring all over the country which is not a healthy thing for the people living there.

"So, we don't think this arrears issue is an appropriate thing to be leaning into during a financial crisis for many households."

As for tenants evicted for persistent disruptive behaviour, Gilberd said more investment in wrap-around services was needed.

He said their organisation had around 20,000 homes housing 35,000 tenants and used wrap-around services to support people with complex needs.

"We're dealing with a lot of things with wrap-around services, like mental health, disability, [fetal alcohol spectrum disorders], people who can't get or hold onto employment because they've got other difficulties in their lives."

Gilberd said wrap-around services and support could make or break a tenancy, otherwise, "if you leave them to themselves then of course they're going to be a problem".

"Ultimately, we need to ask ourselves and particularly the people in the Beehive, what sort of a country do they want to live in?

"What sort of a country do we want our children to grow up in?"