Ellen Dixon is new manager at Palmerston North's Housing Advice Centre

New Housing Advice Centre manager Ellen Dixon says housing should be about a safe place to flourish. Photo / Judith Lacy

Ellen Dixon's career is full of acronyms - enough to make you dizzy.

But it's the ability to help people that motivates her.

Dixon is the new manager at Housing Advice Centre in Palmerston North. Based at Hancock Community House, the free and independent service helps tenants and landlords navigate tenancy.

Dixon, who started in November, says the biggest issue centre staff see is digital illiteracy and the resultant inability to create online tenancy profiles. This demonstrates society lacks understanding of the level of inequity in today's digital world.

The privatisation of emergency housing is another issue with people living in motels having to move out whenever an event comes to town.

Other issues include vaccination mandates limiting access to property managers and advice, and the increased cost of building materials.

Centre clients often say they don't understand their rights as they got the system back at them when they ask for help rather than a person. They are looking for empathy, a sense of direction and people who will listen to them, she says.

Last year Dixon was the national education officer for the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations and is now working on a report for NZUSA about young people considering not having children because of the housing crisis and student loans.

The 27-year-old is also a member of the Global Student Forum, an umbrella organisation of the world's student federations, representing NZUSA.

Dixon has started a PhD in international relations looking at how liberal democracies use states of emergency to impose on their citizens. She has a Master of International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Canterbury and describes herself as a creative metatheorist - someone who corrects incorrect or imbalanced social science theories.

Dixon is a member of Unesco's SDG4 Youth Interim Council. Sustainable development goal 4 is about quality education and is among the 17 SDGs established by the United Nations in 2015.

She hopes to attend, either in person or virtually, the Unesco World Higher Education Conference in Spain this year.

Asked how she manages all her commitments, Dixon says she is good at scheduling. Sometimes there is not much time for a social life but she has faith what she is doing makes an impact.

She says she is motivated not by a love of politics but by a love of people. Politics is a way of helping people.

Dixon is frustrated by neoliberal structures, in particular the effects on young people and intergenerational engagement. Vulnerable people's voices can get drowned out.

Neoliberalism focuses on the individual while Dixon says when the community is well the individual is well and vice versa. Neoliberalism values competition and commodification over collaboration.

Housing should be about a safe place to flourish and education about growing one's mind and knowledge, not just making yourself available for a job.