Plea for safe, warm homes for their tamariki

Single Mums - Leah Jacobs, Dee Puhipuhi, Hope Jones

Dee Puhipuhi, Hope Jones and Leah Jacobs have been in emergency or transitional housing for longer than what could be called “temporary”, they say.

The three single mothers say they have been forgotten by the authorities and are stuck in unstable accommodation.

“Everyone knows the situation. You can't book a motel room for a holiday because they are all booked for social housing.

“We are sitting here trying to figure out why things are not moving faster to help our people who have no homes.”

A key question for Dee is, why is the Government paying motels $700-$900 a week when that is not a suitable long-term housing solution?

“It doesn't make sense that the system spends funding on emergency solutions that are only benefiting the motels.”

Dee said what she could see was that most people who were stuck in emergency housing were Māori, most people on the waiting list for a state house were Māori, and most people who were not getting home loans approved from the banks owned a share of Māori land.Her question to the Government is, “Why?”

They could not continue to live in limbo, which was why they had decided to support each other in sharing their struggles and raising awareness.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) said Tairāwhiti, like many other parts of the country, had seen an increase in demand for housing.

In the past two years Kāinga Ora had delivered over 20 homes, and around 70 new public homes were planned.

“These homes are either under construction, contract or at feasibility stages of development.”

These were in addition to the housing supply activity by iwi, hapū, community providers and private developers, the spokesperson said.

“Toitū Tairāwhiti was identified through the National Iwi Chairs Forum last year as an iwi ready to partner with the Government to deliver Māori housing in their rohe.

“The partnership with Toitū Tairāwhiti to deliver up to 150 new homes for whānau in Te Tairāwhiti is an example of iwi partners in Tairāwhiti accessing Whai Kāinga, Whai Oranga investment.”

The spokesperson said the ministry acknowledged the barriers whānau Māori faced when building on their whenua.

“We know these are not new issues for whānau.

“Lack of infrastructure and capability and liability of trusts are also being reviewed as part of this work.

“Recent changes have been made to legislation to make it easier to use whenua Māori for housing.

“Through our place-based parthership in Tairāwhiti, housing and urban development is working with iwi, council, Manaaki Tairāwhiti and directly with iwi to deliver better housing outcomes.”

The ministry reviewed the 2011 Office of the Auditor-General report and had noted that “many of the barriers to building on whenua remain the same for whānau Māori”.

“Access to finance is one of the priority areas for this work and is supported by the recent Budget 2022 announcements,” the spokesperson said.

“Assisting whānau into homes includes increasing the Kāinga Whenua Loan cap from $200,000 to $500,000 to better reflect the current housing market prices.

“MHUD is engaging with Māori later this year on the potential changes we can make to address these barriers.”

Whānau advocate Tuta Ngarimu said putting whānau in motels for emergency housing had become a comfortable place for authorities.

“They just put us in that place and leave us there. I can say that because I have seen them doing it for three years now.

“The iwi collective initiative has finally started, which is great, but it will take years to build more houses. We need an urgent solution.

“Right now all whānau see as an option to get some traction from authorities, is either go to the media or kick in the doors of empty state homes.

“Whānau are having to join all the dots — which agency will support them in what way? It should be the agencies' job to guide whānau.”

The MHUD spokesperson said the Government's aim was for families and individuals who needed access to transitional housing “to be there on an average for around 12 weeks”.

“But the stay might be longer when suitable and more secure accommodation such as public housing, or a private rental can't be found.”

Mr Ngarimu said Leah's case had shown that whānau were doing everything they were meant to be doing, but still got lost in the system between agencies such as Ministry of Social Development and Kāinga Ora.

“We are looking at three more single mamas in similar situations to Leah now.

“They are all vulnerable. Most of them have just been bashed around from one door to another so much that they are prepared to withstand all the ill-treatment just to get into emergency housing. They'll do anything, live however, not make a noise about their living conditions because they are scared. They just put up with all the rubbish that goes on with living in these spaces.”

Mr Ngarimu said agencies were aware of this suffering, understood it and took advantage of whānau in this situation.

Hope said it was mostly single mothers who were stuck in the system.

“For us even though now we have come out of emergency housing, we are stuck in transitional housing which is worse than emergency housing because you are in it for longer, under scrutiny by workers there.”

Leah said: “They think we are OK living in transitional housing. They don't actually see the rooms we live in are not fit for purpose.”

Hope said the rooms she and Leah lived in were unhealthy.

“Kids can't really go outside. On top of it, there is the pressure of having all these case managers and workers on our backs.

“Cameras watching you and they know your door codes so there is no privacy.”

Leah said many whānau signed contracts without knowing what was in them, because they needed the accommodation.

“They make you sign a contract to say they can come to our rooms whenever they feel like it.”

Hope said as a mother it was her duty to find a safe place for her kids, so she signed anything at the time.

The only solution the women could think of was to get everyone together in a safe place.

“Until now we were all living our lives separately not knowing one another, suffering in silence. We are all coming together for our kids' safety — we are done being jammed up in a small room. We want other mums like us to know they are not alone.”

They want other mums in similar situations to connect with them and Mr Ngarimu to get support/guidance.

For the kids, it was like being in full-time isolation, Dee said.

“It's like being in jail for which you have not done a crime, and you have curfews.

“Because you can't find a home, you have to live with all these extra conditions. People don't understand the money is the way the Ministry keeps its control over us.”

The MHUD spokesperson said the ministry knew motels were not ideal for whānau, but it was important to provide people with warm, dry accommodation while a long-term housing solution was being found.

“It will take time for housing supply to increase sufficiently to reduce pressure on the emergency housing system.

“The emergency housing system is being reviewed with a redesign under way — improving the wellbeing of people in emergency housing, improving the suitability of accommodation and other support for people in urgent housing need, and enabling Māori-led solutions to address urgent housing needs.”

Mr Ngarimu said it was important to highlight what was happening for these whānau because their voices were silenced enough.

“All these case managers and decision- makers need to be out there and have lived experience of homelessness.

“They need to be able to feel what it's like to be one of our whānau living in these conditions.

“They only clock in and out in their offices. They haven't got the true sense of what it's like to be homeless.

“The feeling of the whānau — that is what needs to drive their mahi.

“It would give them the sense of urgency in their mahi. In my opinion at the moment they are only giving 40 percent of what they are capable of doing.”

The spokesperson said people were at the heart of what the Ministry did.

“We are committed to working in partnership with iwi and Māori organisations, local government, housing providers and others to increase the supply of homes in Gisborne Tairāwhiti.

“This week, whānau in need will be moving into four new homes that have just been completed in Munro Street.

“On Thursday a home built by students in the Trade Academy at Massey High School, Auckland (pictured above) will be transported to Gisborne and placed on a site on Gladstone Road to be used for public housing.

“More homes built by trade academies in Gisborne and around the country are expected to be ready for tenants before the end of the year.

“Students at the trade academies build the homes at their campus, supervised by a licensed building practitioner lecturer. The homes are warm, dry, healthy homes built to New Zealand Green Building Council 6 Homestar standards.

“Gisborne Tairāwhiti is a priority area to increase public housing supply.

“The number of applicants from the housing register housed in Gisborne District between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 was 73.”

The best way to address the growing waiting list for public (social) housing was to build more houses, the spokesperson said.

“MHUD has also funded a project (in partnership with Te Puni Kōkiri) with Te Aitanga a Mahaki Trust to deliver an iwi social housing project on four project sites in Gisborne.

“The $1.38m of funding was from the He Kūkū Ki Te Kāinga Fund, which was set up to contribute to increasing housing supply projects.”