If National wins ...

[smtrader]

The right approach should start with asking the right questions of those beneficiary recipients that they portray as victims of circumstances all the time in the media.. the latest story was of the women with tht 74 grand debt (side fact she has 8 children, one of which is 5 months old) and she has been kicked out of her social housing home as she tested positive for methamphetamine use.

i think the story should be 'why are you buying p, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol instead of looking for a job and why on earth are you a human producing machine'?????

i don't feel sorry one bit for anyone like that. Its ridiculous that anyone watching this actually believes they are victims..

[elZorro]

The right approach should start with asking the right questions of those beneficiary recipients that they portray as victims of circumstances all the time in the media.. the latest story was of the women with tht 74 grand debt (side fact she has 8 children, one of which is 5 months old) and she has been kicked out of her social housing home as she tested positive for methamphetamine use.

i think the story should be 'why are you buying p, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol instead of looking for a job and why on earth are you a human producing machine'?????

i don't feel sorry one bit for anyone like that. Its ridiculous that anyone watching this actually believes they are victims..

I think it must be this article you're referring to, smtrader.

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/arti...ectid=11643936

The mother argues in the item that the house must have been previously contaminated with meth, as they didn't use it or make it, or have others through the house that did. Someone from state services conversely said that they'd admitted using meth in their three previous housing corp properties. So someone is wrong, and this is a woman who has had 8 babies in 11 years, starting from the age of 17. So she hasn't had a chance to work for a living yet, and her partner is no longer working, even though he seems to be in the right trade. They've made some fairly poor domestic decisions.

Another article.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...-poverty-group

I agree, smtrader, this is a shambles, made worse by the state actually lending money for this family to stay in a 1 bedroom motel accommodation for months. Money that will probably never be repaid. The private sector social housing providers are not stepping up either, that's for sure. Do we want to see this family on the street for a harsh dose of reality, or would a better option be to allocate a state house property at reasonable rent, and ensure the partner gets out to work again? Would regular drug testing of at-risk properties owned by the state be a good idea? I guess they're doing that already on occasion, and they should certainly check either side of a tenancy, to prove things one way or the other.

However, this is an extreme case, not average. There is a big shortage of social housing in Auckland, it'll get worse before it gets better. Rawden on the news, says he's almost falling over the increasing homeless on Auckland's Queen Street and downtown areas.

[elZorro]

Paula "hyperbowl" Bennett has another idea to help the homeless. Well, a few of them anyway. Ship them out of town. Yeah, that'll work.



http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...cklanders.html

[smtrader]

Paula "hyperbowl" Bennett has another idea to help the homeless. Well, a few of them anyway. Ship them out of town. Yeah, that'll work.



http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...cklanders.html

OMG im going to rip whatever left of my hair out!

I had tenants who took up some grant of this nature 2 years ago...

Went to Tauranga (to my extreme delight, as i really wanted them out my south Auckland home - which i wish i didnt buy there but thats a whole other story)... then guess what?? a year later came back to Auckland.. the grant just as is proposed now.. not a loan not to be paid back

[Daytr]

Bribe people to leave Auckland, that's National's answer to the housing crisis. But why would they do this? According to them it doesn't exist!
There are just so many jobs waiting for these people in the provinces as well.
Pathetic policy that is just a knee jerk reaction as they have ignored the issue that is of their own making for far too long.

[elZorro]

OMG im going to rip whatever left of my hair out!

I had tenants who took up some grant of this nature 2 years ago...

Went to Tauranga (to my extreme delight, as i really wanted them out my south Auckland home - which i wish i didnt buy there but thats a whole other story)... then guess what?? a year later came back to Auckland.. the grant just as is proposed now.. not a loan not to be paid back

Very good point, smtrader. It's not a fix, not even close. And for example, there are already quite a few people looking for jobs in Huntly already. Quite a few residents work in Auckland, and commute. Other people carpool from Hamilton to Auckland every day.

Garry Brittenden from a TS post comment yesterday:

I believe the public are desperate for a credible and coherent alternative. This is the perfect time, and the perfect issue, for Labour and the Greens to announce jointly an innovative, bold 5 point plan to tackle the housing problem. There are solutions-they just need to be clearly articulated so people can see a unified opposition showing vision and leadership. Thats when the polls will really start to move.

You could add NZ First in here.

[macduffy]

Does anyone have some detail on that "bold 5 point plan"?

[fungus pudding]

Does anyone have some detail on that "bold 5 point plan"?

It won't be the govt. or any 5 point plan that will solve this. NZ is in a transition period which will self correct. There is nothing like people to attract people - hence our largest cities grow at a higher rate; a worldwide trend. However it is simply not possible for half the country to live in a few square kilometres of Auckland. In a short time employers will struggle to attract staff in these locations, and will simply be unable to pay them sufficiently high wages to allow them to house themselves.
Elsewhere land is quite plentiful and comparatively cheap. Businesses, particularly those with large staff number requirements will head for the regions, and once jobs are available there, would-be employees will follow. Silicon valley style.
To a large extent this has happened in other countries, and will here - quite soon, There is available labour, comparatively cheap housing, shipping ports and industrial development land. There are many parts of NZ ripe for commercial development.
Auckland will never be cheap and already can hardly be considered affordable for those on average incomes. Common sense and supply and demand factors will ensure this will happen

[elZorro]

It won't be the govt. or any 5 point plan that will solve this. NZ is in a transition period which will self correct. There is nothing like people to attract people - hence our largest cities grow at a higher rate; a worldwide trend. However it is simply not possible for half the country to live in a few square kilometres of Auckland. In a short time employers will struggle to attract staff in these locations, and will simply be unable to pay them sufficiently high wages to allow them to house themselves.
Elsewhere land is quite plentiful and comparatively cheap. Businesses, particularly those with large staff number requirements will head for the regions, and once jobs are available there, would-be employees will follow. Silicon valley style.
To a large extent this has happened in other countries, and will here - quite soon, There is available labour, comparatively cheap housing, shipping ports and industrial development land. There are many parts of NZ ripe for commercial development.
Auckland will never be cheap and already can hardly be considered affordable for those on average incomes. Common sense and supply and demand factors will ensure this will happen

Really? How quickly, FP? Is there not a case for the government to step in and speed up this process by providing incentives for regional manufacturing and SMEs, for example? Would it not also be useful for the State to get all of their housing estate up to scratch? The Herald reports that of 2500 State Houses that are empty at the moment, just over 200 are ready for tenants. That's terrible! National's policy is to run down the state house portfolio and gift it over to the private sector, that's what they're really up to.

[fungus pudding]

Really? How quickly, FP? Is there not a case for the government to step in and speed up this process by providing incentives for regional manufacturing and SMEs, for example?

Society is quite capable of organising itself, especially if the gummint don't try and 'help'.
Regional development schemes (picking winners) can never deliver the same results as the free market.