Inside story: State house tenants meet their new landlords

As of the first of this month, tenants at 1138 state houses in the Bay of Plenty have a new landlord. The government under Housing New Zealand has transferred the homes to a local charity. While the social housing sell-off has been politically controversial, how the handover will affect people living in state houses is unknown. Bay of Plenty Times Weekend reporter Dawn Picken examines plans for helping our community's most vulnerable residents keep a roof over their heads.

Home, Sweet Home

The kids are home and they're hungry.

"Cupcakes!" says 7-year-old David, grabbing a pink frosting-topped treat from a plastic container on the bench. He bites into the top as 5-year-old Christina unwraps her cupcake. Jasmine, 15, sits at the table, watching. "Yummy," says David.

The family moved into this Welcome Bay home last June. Mum Melissa Macrae says: "The schools are within walking distance for my kids. It's a lot better than our last house."

Macrae says she paid $380 per week for a three-bedroom house in Otumoetai and was three days from being evicted for not paying rent. Thanks to help from social service provider Te Tuinga Whanau, she got into a state house where rent is $104 week, paid by WINZ.

"It's a lovely house. I would never actually have thought that it was a Housing New Zealand house."

Macrae shows us around the five-bedroom home with views over the hills.

"Here we have John's bedroom. He's got his own bedroom now. He loves it."

A room for three of her girls includes stuffed toys and two tiny lawn chairs.

The solo mum of nine, ages 1 through 15, says she wouldn't tell landlords how many children she had.

"It would've been an instant 'no' on the private property market."

And $600-$700 per week rent for a five-bedroom home is far beyond reach. "We're lucky just to have a house."

Melissa Macrae

Waiting at the shelter

Over in Tauranga's CBD, Stephanie Tapiata is on the waiting list for social housing.

She's been living in emergency shelter Whare Tauranga since mid-January. That's when she vacated the granny flat she rented in Bethlehem for $250 per week.

"We left because they had a family taking over the whole house. It was a couple weeks before Christmas, so it was bad timing."

Tapiata works half-time as a teacher's aide at a Maori preschool in Te Puna and says renting a house near work would cost around $360 per week.

"I had a look online and in the papers, but because I'm by myself, I found it really hard to afford it."

Tapiata shares a small room at the shelter with her children. The day we visit, her 4-year-old daughter, Maringi, wears a flower headband while 10-year-old brother Tutirangi dons boxing gloves.

He says he does jiu jitsu: "I have a yellow belt."

Stephanie and I are interrupted a half-dozen times by Maringi, who holds out a multi-coloured eye shadow kit.

"You put some on." I oblige, smudging purple on my lids before returning Mum's lighted mirror. "Will you come back?" Marangi asks. "Maybe," I say.

As much as she's enjoying the camaraderie of the Whare, Tapiata is ready for a home.

"I wanted my son to have his own room."

I ask if she knows when that might that happen. "I'm not too sure," she says.

Tapiata is also unsure how the transfer of social housing from the government to Accessible Properties will affect her wait. She heard a new group was taking over.

"I don't know much about it."

Stephanie Tapiata and her children, Tutirangi, 10, and Maringi, 4, are on the waiting list for social housing.

Meet the new landlord

Accessible Properties (AP), a charitable arm of non-profit group IHC, which advocates for intellectually disabled people, as of April 1 has taken over 1138 state houses in the Bay of Plenty.

The organisation has set up an office on Cameron Rd in Tauranga, where a team of 12 staff members will be based, according to general manager Andrew Wilson.

He says AP has a larger number of tenancy managers, and expects more contacts between his staff and tenants than happened previously under Housing New Zealand.

A government Treasury official said AP's ratio of tenancy managers to tenants was 1:178, compared with Housing NZ's 1:250/350.

Wilson says the homes will support a broad spectrum of community members, from children through retirees.

"Social housing includes people having difficulty entering into the rental market. They might be new immigrants, people with special support needs, mental health conditions ... they need landlords who understand those needs and work with social service agencies to support people living in their own homes."

Accessible Properties chairman Paul Adams has pledged to work with iwi agencies and government agencies to help tenants strive towards housing independence.

The non-profit has pledged to build 150 new homes within four years. Social Housing Minister Amy Adams attended the AP office opening late last month, saying Housing NZ is selling some properties so it can continue growing stock in other areas across the country.

"We want to ensure we have the right housing in the right places for the right people at the right time."

Minister Adams says the Government plans to grow the number of available social houses the next three years from 66,000 to 72,000.

"In addition, we are currently in the process of procuring 2150 emergency housing places across New Zealand."

Accessible Properties' Andrew Wilson says having the right kind of housing means increasing the number of one-bedroom units.

"Demand for smaller units is growing. It's a combination of split families and an ageing population."

Under the new landlord, state housing tenants will continue being housed as long as they remain eligible. Their rights and rents remain the same, according to Wilson.

He says some tenants, those whose rent is not paid by WINZ, will need to change payment arrangements.

"From the tenants' point of view, it'll be much the same. We're wanting to create a greater degree of connectedness between our staff and the tenants and that's probably a significant difference. There will be more frequent contact with tenants and we can pick up issues requiring support earlier than would otherwise be possible."

Critics' concerns

Vanessa Kururangi with State House Action Incorporated was involved in a legal bid at the Wellington High Court late last year to prevent the sale of Tauranga's state housing.

Although her group didn't stop the sale, Kururangi says she'll keep working to ensure tenants get homes that are safe, warm and dry.

"Our stance is the Government should not be selling off our state assets. We know there will be an increase in homelessness because of what the Government has done. We want to make sure people are getting benefits they're entitled to and they're in homes so children are rooted and still have a sense of community and not getting shifted around because parents can't afford housing.

"It's going to increase and I don't think Tauranga is ready for it."

Despite the new state house owner's charity status, Kururangi says she's still concerned.

"I think that yes, they help people with disabilities and they're wonderful with what they do. I think they should've stuck with what they do. I don't think they have the capacity to help everyone that needs it ... and there's nothing to stop them [IHC] from de-registering Accessible Properties as a charitable organisation."

Accessible Properties already managed 1600 homes throughout the country before taking on 1138 Tauranga state houses on April 1.

The number today sits at more than 2700 homes. Parent organisation IHC has been providing social housing more than 60 years.

Tauranga manager Andrew Wilson said Accessible Properties' registration as a charitable organisation is separate from that for IHC.

"IHC does not have direct control on this registration, and there is no conceivable reason why IHC [as owner of Accessible Properties] would request Accessible Properties to rescind registration."

Jan Tinetti, Labour candidate for Tauranga and principal of Merivale School opposed the sale of state houses, telling the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend she was sad the deal proceeded.

"I believe we need that national system."

She said many families she deals with at school were uncertain about what would happen to them under the new organisation.

"I'm hopeful it'll work for them, because I don't want to see it go backwards. However, I can't see why we couldn't make the [state house] system that was already there, work."

Front-line perspective

Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services works with at-risk and homeless locals every day.

Executive director Tommy Wilson said the old state house system wasn't working.

"Properties were broken down, not used to capacity ... I don't care what political hat people are wearing. I care that people have warm, dry properties in Tauranga and this is the way we're going to get them.

"The reality is, we have to reconfigure what we've got to make it far more accessible."

Wilson believes society is one step away from "ghetto-ising" communities.

"This is something the rest of the country can learn from and follow."

His organisation seeks to shape reliable community members who can rent, or someday even own their own homes.

"We actually don't want to see them again," he says of TTW's emergency shelter clients.

Melissa Macrae says she's been clean 124 days when we meet late last month. The 32-year-old was addicted to methamphetamine for a decade, introduced to the drug, she says, by a violent ex-partner who's now in jail.

She attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, budgeting lessons, and hopes within the next year to start part-time work. She's looking forward to regaining full-time custody of her four youngest children, who are living with a relative until June.

"We've had a massive transformation the past few months. Just a complete lifestyle change, but for the better."