The official waiting list for social housing has started rising again for the first time since the list was transferred to Work and Income two years ago.

Orlando Shepherd appeared in Manukau District Court this afternoon to be sentenced for owning a dog that attacked a person.

A pre-Budget report released by the Treasury today shows that the target for social housing places has been cut from 65,000 to 64,100, apparently for fiscal reasons.

COMMENT: Since announcing the policy, Labour has been almost silent on what it's planning and instead got distracted by what National was doing, writes Claire Trevett.

Housing New Zealand will spend $2 billion to build and buy more than 4000 new state houses after an apparent Government backtrack.

Labour's loudly heralded housing policy announcement today will be received with more interest than an opposition party normally receives.

COMMENT: Housing NZ assesses applications on behalf of KiwiSaver providers to understand if the applicant is in the same financial position as a first-home buyer.

After 10 days on mattresses at Te Puea Marae, the first thing B's little brothers wanted to do in their new home was run up and down the stairs.

The girl's plight came to light after she shared her story on Facebook.

Family tell of how they lived for four months in their van, while still going to work and school throughout their ordeal.

Housing New Zealand is demolishing a multi-million dollar state housing complex in Onehunga because of leaky building issues.

State house tenant with two disabled adult children will be able to stay in her house after Work and Income paid her rent arrears this morning.

Housing NZ is evicting several tenants in Hamilton, just as Aucklanders are being offered $5000 to move into state homes there and in other provincial cities.

Councils in growing regions which refuse to free up land for housing will soon be breaking the law, Prime Minister John Key says.

Society's most vulnerable will receive a $650 million funding boost spanning health, welfare and education services aimed at helping those at-risk "lead better lives".

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley has ruled out cancelling the debt families rack up emergency housing.

Housing initiatives will feature strongly in Thursday's Budget, but there is unlikely to be any further help for first-home buyers.

COMMENT: The same crisis that is locking so many young people out of homeownership is locking our poorest families out of any home at all, writes Andrew Little. That's not the Kiwi way.

Housing New Zealand has sold 18 state houses on the West Coast over the past four years netting $2,852,600.

A banker who Housing NZ paid $2.3 million to help it sell state houses won the most lucrative contracts in closed tenders, an investigation has found.

Housing NZ has spent $5.8 million so far this year testing and cleaning up state houses contaminated with meth, and more than half of them in Auckland.

Tenancy Tribunal rulings have ordered two ex tenants to pay for the damage caused by methamphetamine.

As Kiwi homeowners spend millions each year fixing P-contaminated houses, a drug detection expert has opened up on how to spot one in your neighbourhood.

Previous homeowners are able to get back into the housing market using KiwiSaver if they're in the same financial position as a first-home buyer.

At least 2 per cent of Housing New Zealand tenants are not eligible to live in a state house.

As most Kiwis head home, some have no homes to go to - but that is changing in Hamilton, which aims to end homelessness this year.

Housing New Zealand chief executive Glen Sowry reveals to Anne Gibson how his first career was as a sparky.

Proposals to rezone Auckland single-house areas for multiple and mixed housing zones has created a generational rift among Aucklanders.

Top public sector CEOs reap at least $50,000 in pay rises and bonuses.