Property boom leaving people homeless in Northland

With property prices soaring, people in Northland are living in cars because they are unable to meet the rising cost of finding a place to live.

Emergency housing providers are reporting increased pressure on their services because of the property boom.

Dean Realty property manager Ross Taylor said the average price of a Northland property is up about 27 per cent on last year and landlords are taking advantage of increased demand by increasing rent.

Emergency housing provider Alan Scott said rent rises were forcing some people into emergency housing. Mr Scott, chairman of Te Kauhanga Nui A Iwi Trust, said his organisation had 10 houses and flats in Whangarei, but needed at least 20 properties to cope with demand.

"Higher rents are definitely putting the pressure on. And of course at this time of the year there's a higher demand because people who can cope in caravans or tents or whatever can't cope at this time of year.

"In the last week we've had two women with their children referred to us who had been living in their cars."

Mr Scott said the trust offered three-month tenancies, but if no house was available people were sometimes placed temporarily in backpackers accommodation.

He said a wide range of people of all ages had recently sought the trust's help, including a woman who had been about to leave Whangarei Hospital's maternity ward with her newborn baby but had nowhere to go.

Others included people forced to move out of campgrounds that were closing, a man who had nowhere to live on his release from Ngawha prison and people evicted from rental accommodation they couldn't afford or from property that had sold.

One Double Five Community House co-ordinator Carol Peters said high property prices were certainly translating to accommodation difficulties for people on lower incomes.

"It's getting tougher and overcrowding in some houses means people are on the verge of going and sleeping in cars."

Now that several Whangarei campgrounds had closed there were fewer places to stay.

"Some of them end up back under the hedge. We've got nothing to offer. There are 12-15 sleeping rough each night, older people," Ms Peters said.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)