Desperately seeking a place to live is Walter Topia and Shakur, one of his two daughters. Photo / George Novak
Desperately seeking a place to live is Walter Topia and Shakur, one of his two daughters. Photo / George Novak
Walter Topia and his family are just two weeks away from losing their home.
The severely disabled Greerton man and his two daughters, Mihi, 14, and Shakur, 16, desperately need a new rental - one that can accommodate a fulltime carer too.
Mr Topia, who suffered a stroke, was at a meeting in Merivale yesterday where Labour Party leader Andrew Little talked about housing.
They would have nowhere to live if nothing turned up in the next two weeks because the rest of his family were in Auckland.
The situation was complicated by his home having to be wheelchair friendly. Even social housing trusts had been unable to help because of the demand on their services.
Mr Topia said he had lived in Tauranga since 2000 and wanted to stay here.
He is being helped by Kellie Kioa, founder of a not-for-profit advocacy organisation aimed at providing families facing a housing crisis with somewhere to live.
At yesterday's meeting, Mr Little said he was not ready to include Tauranga in his proposed housing deposit scheme aimed at cooling the overheated Auckland property market.
Mr Little was quizzed about the controversial scheme after hearing from Merivale residents and Tauranga's not-for-profit social housing providers.
He has suggested a tiered system in which speculators investing in Auckland paid higher deposits on homes according to how many properties they already owned. For instance, the deposit payable on a second investment property would be 30 per cent and a third property 40 per cent.
Mr Little adopted a cautious approach on extending the scheme to Tauranga.
Labour Party leader Andrew Little and Merivale Community Centre manager Rachel Palmer. Photo / John Borren
He wanted to reduce the pressure on house prices by "keeping the speculators out of speculating". He said that was one of the big pressures pushing up prices in Auckland. "I'm not sure if it is being played out here."
Yesterday's media-excluded meeting involved Mr Little hearing about Tauranga's housing crisis that included a lack of affordable housing, spiralling rents, a rental shortage for socially disadvantaged people and lack of emergency housing.
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