The hidden cost of housing

Reporter·NZ Herald·

18 Jun, 2015 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Dr Richard Davies at the Auckland City Mission treats Kevan Gill, 53, who has been sleeping rough while waiting for social housing. Photo / Nick Reed

Psychiatrist says strain of dealing with high rents a key factor in people's mental problems.

The stress of coping with Auckland's high housing costs is making us unwell, a psychiatrist says. Dr Tony Fernando, a Filipino-born medical school lecturer, said housing-related financial strains were now a key factor in mental problems for many patients.

"I've been a psychiatrist here in New Zealand since 1998 and the significance of financial hardship is much more palpable in the last few years where that is a main contributor to their unwellness," he said.

Average rents in the former Auckland City area have risen 82 per cent since early 1999, from $280 to $510 a week. Average Auckland hourly wages rose in the same period by only 66 per cent, and benefit rates for single adults by 44 per cent.

The national priority A waiting list for social housing multiplied from 184 households in March 2004 to 2348 in March this year.

Dr Fernando, who works at the Taylor Centre in Ponsonby, said he was treating the father in a refugee family of two parents and two toddlers who had been living in "a tiny box" on an upper floor of a city apartment block for two years because they could not get a Housing NZ transfer to a more suitable home. "Referring to Housing NZ is getting harder and harder," he said.

When he first came to New Zealand he "very rarely" needed to ask patients about their finances. "But now part of my assessment for a lot of my patients is asking them, 'If you don't mind, can we have a look at your budget?' Because they tell me, 'I'm struggling, I can't afford the bus fare to see you'."

Dr Richard Davies at the Auckland City Mission's medical clinic, where about a quarter of the patients are sleeping rough, said homeless people suffered above-average rates of accidents and injuries, chest and skin infections, and conditions such as diabetes related to poor diet.

Kevan Gill, 53, who has lived on the street since October, has back, skin and feet problems, and has had epileptic fits because he can no longer take medicines that make him sleep heavily at night. "You don't know if you're going to get robbed."

He applied for social housing late last year but has not yet been offered a home.

Sleeping out to raise funds

Two Auckland University doctors and a medical student will sleep out for a night next month in Lifewise's annual Big Sleepout to raise funds for helping the city's homeless.

Psychiatrist Dr Tony Fernando, Aids researcher Associate Professor Mark Thomas and fifth-year medical student Jimmy Chancellor will join more than 100 other Aucklanders in the sleepout, including Blues players Josh Bekhuis and Joe Edwards, singer Lizzie Marvelly and Herald managing editor Shayne Currie on July 2.

A further 28 people, including Te Karere reporter Kereama Wright and Te Arawa FM presenter Kingi Biddle, will spend a night out in Rotorua.

All participants are raising money from their networks to help to fund Lifewise's "wraparound" support to assist homeless people into housing, including helping with addictions and mental health issues and connecting them with other people in the community. Last year, the event raised $177,000.

Dr Fernando, who has raised $1842 so far, said he could not help his homeless patients with mental health issues through the Auckland District Health Board's Ponsonby-based Taylor Centre unless they also got help with all their other problems such as physical ailments, finding food and a safe place to live.

"Sometimes I have patients who we meet in the street because they don't want to come to a clinic, or an appointment will be inside our car," he said. "We have really excellent key workers who are very creative in making contact."