Everyone should have a decent, stable and permanently affordable place to call home, regardless of their income. A place to come back to, for quiet and rest. A place to experience joy with friends and family. A place to feel grounded in community. Public housing is one of the major ways we can achieve this vision.
ActionStation continued to team up with Public Housing Futures (PHF) this year. Together, we’re organising a long-term campaign calling on the Government to address the housing crisis through a significant build and buy programme for public housing.
Pre-empting the Government's review of Kāinga Ora, PHF worked with Child Poverty Action Group to launch A People’s Review of Kāinga Ora: In Defence of Public Housing in March. As part of that mahi we spoke to people on the waitlist, living in public housing, renters, homeowners, and people working on the frontlines of the housing crisis. This told another story about public housing. The report was put in front of Ministers, and Housing Minister Chris Bishop was asked to respond. There was also a meeting with opposition MPs to discuss the content.
PHF was an active voice in the media, highlighting the Government’s decision to pause, downsize and cancel Kāinga Ora projects across the country. PHF built a map tool for people to take action locally around the paused developments in their communities. This led to an article about the campaign appearing on the front page of The Post.
In October, PHF ran local events in Tāmaki Makaurau as part of growing support for public housing locally. These events involved making paper houses/apartments to represent local housing waitlists, and placing them at empty sites where Kāinga Ora housing has been paused.
The Government has been laying the foundations to privatise our public housing programme, and ActionStation and Public Housing Futures will continue to build momentum to defend and extend public housing next year.