CHAT said before the rally, "We want to raise the public's awareness of the extent and effects of this long-running and worsening housing crisis. The severe shortage of permanent social housing, started by the mass demolitions in Maraenui and other suburbs in Aotearoa, has overloaded the private rental market and that in turn has seen rents skyrocket due to the shortage of rental housing stock.
"Coupled with that is the inability of most people, particularly young families, to buy their own home, thus freeing up the houses they rent. With the general election coming up CHAT are asking all political parties and candidates to commit to supporting a fast-tracked political resolution, regardless of which parties are in power after September 23.
"The millions paid to motels and camping grounds via emergency housing grants is a seriously misguided spend on the taxpayers' purses but to also find out that MSD have now purchased entire motel businesses for this purpose is absolutely repugnant - it clearly indicates the current government expects this situation to continue but it still does nothing about where people will go when their 12-week occupancy of these temporary placements expires.
"Meanwhile, more and more children and adults suffer diminishing health and social outcomes, including people who are in employment as well as those who are unwell or unable."
All the political party candidates at the CHAT rally agreed on one thing - more houses are needed. While Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash was in attendance, it was his colleague Meka Whaitiri, Maori MP for Ikaroa-Rawhiti, who spoke on behalf of the Labour party.
Damon Rusden spoke passionately for the Green party and his colleague, Tukituki candidate Chris Perley, was in attendance listening to people's stories up close and personal too.
Will Jenkins represented for NZ First and Marama Fox was another passionate speaker who spoke on the Maori party's policies on ending this housing and poverty-related situation.
National candidate for Tukituki Lawrence Yule said HB may see between 100 and 200 of the recently announced Budget provisions for new housing programmes, with the lion's share going to Auckland of course.
Labour, the Greens and the Maori party already have a set of agreed principles and actions - the Cross-Party Agreement to End Homelessness in NZ.
Local government needs to then partner-up with central government and plan to regularly undertake a regional housing needs assessment, able to be included as part of the HPUDS data-sets, complementing the existing data that multiple agencies hold at the high end "big picture" level but with a scarcity of any real data from the ground floor level - the people themselves.
It's all about land - that's the challenge. HNZ have lots of it but only for sale at market prices - unless there's a change of government on September 23.
In the meantime, CHAT does not see any new or permanent housing coming on the horizon anytime soon so we put out the plea to all people to please stop focusing on the narrow-ended lens of the plight of our homeless - you are literally endangering them.
So we CHAT members have been actively supporting these people to keep them safe, advocate for them with MSD/HNZ and basically show them that not all people are judging them, some of us are genuinely able to be trusted, to allow us in to help restore them.
Michelle Pyke is the spokeswoman for the Community Housing Action Team (CHAT). Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
