The Premium Debate: Subscribers react to family living in fourth emergency housing motel in five months

Opinion

A solo mother of six who has lived in four motels in five months and applied for countless Rotorua rentals is desperate for a landlord “to give me a chance”.

Her story came as Trade Me figures showed the median weekly rent in Rotorua skyrocketed to $580 last month from $500 in April last year. In the Bay of Plenty, it increased to $650 – the same as Auckland and Wellington.

The mum, whom NZME agreed not to name for safety reasons, said she has six children and was living in her fourth motel despite applying for “every four-bedroom or five-bedroom house that is in my price range”.

In her view, a bad credit rating, the size of her family and being on a benefit were the main reasons she had found it impossible to get a house.

Read the full story: Rotorua rentals: Family living in fourth emergency motel in five months as weekly rents jump $80.

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And there you have it. A shortage of rental properties after the Government stopped allowing interest deductibility for residential landlords. They also brought in new regulations around heating and insulation that Housing NZ enjoyed an extension of time for, and private landlords did not. We don’t know the circumstances of the mother with six children, but that is a lot of mouths to feed.

Alastair H

There is a silver bullet - reverse Labour’s changes to residential rentals so that landlords are prepared to take more risks and not forced to put up with unwanted tenants. Allowing loan interest to be claimed as expenses would also reduce rental prices. But no, the Government knows best. Well, it was warned.

Mike H

Having lots of kids does have costs. That’s why many of us stop at two, because we could not afford it. Yet we still have to pay for those who did not.

Stephen H

I always wonder why so many people who are either on minimum wage or unemployed and have insecure housing have so many children.

Paul W

The woman in the article should be saying how thankful she is to have a country provide a roof over her and her six kids’ heads. Is she grateful?

Dion D

In response to Dion D: My maternal great-great-grandmother had eight children in Wellington during the long depression, when her husband died suddenly, leaving her with one of the children [who was] only a baby. Her twin sister had 12 children at that time, and her husband also died. Those two women brought up 20 children who all survived to adulthood, which was unusual in those days. The twin sisters both lived to their 80s, which was also unusual. They must have had a lot of grit, and the older children must have worked both inside and outside the house tirelessly - but they did that with no financial support. The benefits that were brought in much later were supposed to assist people like that; yet isn’t it amazing that now, even with this support, people simply can’t manage? What has happened to human society? Why can we no longer grow our own food and look after ourselves?

Claire C

In reply to Claire C: Easy - have you seen the price of housing?

Cathy A

Dear Government, stop making landlords’ lives unbearable then, and perhaps more rentals would return to the market and rents might be able to come down.

Mark C

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