Why Public Housing?
Public housing is an essential public service provided to people by the central government through income related rents or local councils through subsidised rent. While it should be a public service – like hospitals, and schools – it has not always been treated as an essential resource available to all.
Public housing in Aotearoa is currently provided to those who are at risk of homelessness. It has been painted with stigma and misunderstanding. Years of disinvestment and the residualisation of the tenure for those only in the most need has contributed to successive governments and the public sidelining it as a solution at great costs.
Public housing, however, is an important public service not only for those who live in it or are on a waitlist for it, but for all our futures. A housing system under the control of the private market contributes to growing economic and racial inequity – while some are making a lot of profit from housing, there are a growing number of people on the waitlist for public housing, and many more people struggling to pay private rentals who do not fit the current criteria to access public housing but need it.
While we are seeing an increase in housing development, the majority of this is being sold at a price out of reach to many of us and at the cost of people being priced out of their communities. The current band aid solutions of an Accommodation Supplement which goes directly to landlords, and an emergency housing subsidy which goes directly to motels and providers are unsustainable.
If public housing was invested in as essential infrastructure of care in our communities, a large-scale government-led housing programme would:
● Play a significant role in regulating the housing system through providing a truly affordable alternative tenure with rents decided democratically rather than by the market.
● Ensure that housing and communities can be built or renovated at-scale to address the current and future need, and in collaboration with communities itself.
● Provide security for people to live in their communities close to amenities and social connection without the threat of gentrification and displacement. This will create and sustain diverse and thriving communities, towns and cities.
● Enable coordinated and planned innovation around climate resilience and contribute to just transitions where workers will not lose employment, and people won’t lose their homes.
Why Futures?
Our current housing situation is unsustainable. So we are called to re-imagine what a better public housing future could look like.
It could look like an abundance of public housing which is funded by the government and:
● Connected to the whenua (with thought put into its relationship to the place its built, and the tangata whenua who come from there)
● Beautiful (we deserve beautiful homes, no matter how much we get paid!)
● Accessible (for disabled people and whānau, and all ages and backgrounds)
● Secure (no one should fear losing their home)
● Democratic (those who live in public housing, should have a say in how it works)
● Multi-generational (making sure families can thrive together)
● Culturally responsive (so people of all cultures can feel at home)
● Available to all (open to a wider group of people than the housing waiting list)
● A part of the wider community (embedded in community, connected to the schools, hospitals, shops and amenities we need)
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Here are some futures that we have been imagining collectively, what public housing futures do you imagine?
Aotearoa is well-known for genuinely affordable, accessible, healthy, sustainable and beautiful housing for everyone. Homes are for living, not profit or investments. Māori express tino rangatiratanga on housing when it comes to hapū, iwi and whānau and there will be pathways for Māori to return home with access to resourcing support for papakainga. Papakainga are thriving, including urban papakainga. There is an abundance of public homes, meaning that people can live where they are from, or move freely to different areas without financial pressure. Universal public housing means everyone has a home they can stay in for as long as possible. There is no such thing as empty houses while people are deprived of housing.
Decisions around the housing system are made in meaningful partnership with tangata whenua. Public housing is built with universal design principles, it is accessible to disabled people and enables people to be active in their community. It reflects the diverse needs of communities in Aotearoa and allows intergenerational housing. Building developments enable communities to thrive by living close to family and folk are able to live close to where they work. Local communities have decision making power over new housing developments and new developments actively combat gentrification and displacement. Homes are always treated as being part of natural ecosystems, communities, culture and histories.
● Tino Rangatiratanga: Māori express tino rangatiratanga on housing when it comes to hapū, iwi and whānau and there will be pathways for Māori to return home with access to resourcing support for papakainga. Papakainga are thriving, including urban papakainga.
● Accessibility: Disabled people have the same right to housing as non-disabled people, and housing is not a barrier to disabled people being able to actively participate in their communities if they wish to. Disabled people have access to warm, dry, safe housing that is easily adapted to suit their needs, and all public housing is designed and built in line with Universal design principles as a baseline starting point. Disabled people have their public house modified as required to suit their needs over their lifetime.
● Affordability: Public homes are truly affordable with rent decided democratically rather than by the market.
● Universality: There is an abundance of public homes and they are widely available to people regardless of income. It is distributed in communities all over Aotearoa to address segregation and combat gentrification. As more people access it, more people have a role in protecting this essential public service.
● Security: public rental homes have security of tenure for life so people can stay in their communities and build deep social connections which combat isolation. If a home does need renovation or a rebuild people lead this process and are provided suitable alternative accommodation in their community with a legislated right to return to their home. Communities are secure from gentrification and displacement because of the abundance of homes, and are able to pass their public home to their children or family members so that families can stay in their communities.
● Multi-generational: public homes are built and renovated in a way that whānau, family, friends and companions can live together. Innovative housing typologies means people can live independently and communally if they choose to.
● Culturally responsive: the design of public housing provides for the culturally diverse communities that live in them. Māori whānau, Pasifika, and migrant communities have public housing that reflect their values, their ways of being and knowing.
● Sustainable: Public housing is a part of a Ministry of Green Works, public homes are built and renovated to be zero carbon and renewable energy sources.
● Beautiful: all public housing is designed to be beautiful, architecture reflects the diverse communities that live in them.
● Democratic: public housing tenants have resources for tenant and neighbourhood unions where they can collectively bargain with their public housing carers. Communal spaces are built as social spaces and democratic forums for decision making.
● A part of wider communities: public homes are a part of broader eco-systems and communities and connected to and integrated into green infrastructure – public transport, green spaces, food forests so that all people can have sustainable resources regardless of income. They are built into communities with access to free amenities and essential services.