Houses empty amid need

This state house in Campbell St, Raureka, has been vandalised after standing empty for almost a year.

State houses are empty for years in Hawke's Bay before being sold on the open market, despite a pressing need for housing.

Housing New Zealand (HNZ) figures released under the Official Information Act show long periods of vacancy between when tenants move out and when a house changes hands.

A state house in Brian Ave, Wairoa, stood empty for almost four years before it was sold last year, while a house in Bledisloe St, Hastings, was empty for two years and 315 days before being sold in February.

HNZ's open market sales for the year ended February 2015, showed 41 state houses were sold throughout the region.

Currently 88 people are listed on the Ministry of Social Development's social housing waitlist in Napier, 92 people in Hastings, eight people in Wairoa and six people in Central Hawke's Bay.

Labour's Tukituki spokeswoman, Anna Lorck, said the data showed the management of state housing in Hawke's Bay was "an absolute shambles".

"The criteria for getting into a state house has been cut back so much that families can't get these houses. [Housing NZ] go and spend money doing up these houses and the people desperately waiting don't fit the criteria, so they sell the house."

She cited a three-bedroom state house in Campbell St, Raureka, that had stayed empty for almost a year. Hawke's Bay Today ran a story about the house last December, when HNZ said it was considering selling the house, after several applicants turned it down. Since then it has remained empty and has been attacked by vandals.

"It's had thousands spent on it, a new fire, new bathroom, carpet, painted walls, some insulation - and nearly a year on there's still no one living in it. Now it's got smashed windows, and the guttering is falling down," Ms Lorck said.

A local resident said he was fed up with the house standing empty.

"We don't know why it's empty," he said. "The windows only got smashed because there's no one living in it. It does make the house look untidy."

Ikaroa-Rawhiti Labour MP Meka Whaitiri was also outraged by HNZ's sales data.

"It's symptomatic of a Government that doesn't have a housing plan," she said. "They're not all going to community housing providers. They're flicking them off on the open market. In Hawke's Bay there's absolutely enough need out there to take all these empty, unoccupied homes."

An HNZ spokeswoman said selling houses was part of the corporation's "regular business".

"We're always selling houses. It's just part of our regular business. These [houses] are genuinely surplus to our requirements - we wouldn't sell them otherwise - and the money made on them is reinvested into our existing stock. Particularly if they're in an area of low demand, yes, we'll definitely sell them for whatever price we can get."