The stress of helping Hawke's Bay people find homes

The Hastings office of letting agency and residential property managers Oxygen. PHOTO/FILE

It may be business but it's also a mission for Hastings rentals manager Jamie Richardson who, with some emotion, says: "I want to put people in nice, warm homes."

The trouble is, on the back of state housing demolition and removal and other changes in the housing market, there isn't the stock to go around.

Working for Oxygen Property Management, and in the letting and rentals management for almost 13 years, she says: "I get quite distraught sometimes. I want to help everyone. I want to see everyone in a nice warm property. Hawke's Bay is a great place to bring-up children."

But she says many children's prospects are being harmed by the lack of security about where they are living, including disrupting school life and sleeping and eating worries as the youngsters face anxiety about their futures.

She was speaking this week as increasing pressure on home rentals was highlighted by one property owner reported to have had 900 inquiries, although other reports suggest that was 900 on-line views, which increased during the week to over 2000.

During the week it was also reported residential rents in Hawke's Bay are now increasing at a greater rate than anywhere else in New Zealand.

Richardson says the shortage of rental accommodation is hitting "all walks of life", including elderly who should be able to settle and enjoy life without stresses about where they will live.

"It doesn't discriminate," she says. "That's where I think it is cruel."

She says the problem has been "constant", but young families seeking accommodation were facing greater competition from such groups as professionals arriving in New Zealand to work.

There are also situations of homes being bought as second homes but not being regularly occupied, thus being removed from the rental market.

"There are a lot of similar problems all over New Zealand," she says, pondering how to over come property shortages.

"We have to come up with a plan that suits everybody. What can we do as a region?"

One Napier woman, who has three children, says she needed help to deal with agencies and housing authorities, and believes her situation offers hope to those struggling to even be in the hunt for housing.

"It was quite easy as soon as I learnt how to deal with them," she says.