Auckland social housing boost can't come soon enough for state tenant

Plans to boost Auckland's public housing can't come soon enough for mother-of-three Maria Douglas.

She has spent the past four years caring for her children and mother in a state home in Glen Innes, which she says is far too cold for their health.

However, with the home now earmarked for demolition as part of Tamaki regeneration plans to replace 2500 state houses with 7500 "new, warm and dry" homes, Douglas must vacate by early June.

She has been offered alternative state housing in nearby Tamaki, but says she's desperate to move closer to family in the city's south.

There she has a grandma and aunties and uncles who could help her care for her young family after both she and her mum injured themselves in recent falls and her daughter has been in and out of hospital with seizures.

Douglas also says a Glen Innes neighbour is regularly abusing harassing and threatening her.

She worries that if she accepts a state home near Glen Innes, she'll go to the back of the housing transfer queue, and it will take her years to move closer to family in Manurewa and Takanini.

"I'd be devastated if I can't move to South Auckland," Douglas said.

"If I went to a proper house there that was warm I would see my kids not getting sick as much."

Douglas is one of 3278 people either on Auckland's public housing waiting list or already in a home and waiting to be transferred to a new property.

The Government has set a target to alleviate the wait list by boosting Auckland's social housing stock to 33,803 by 2020, up from 30,249 as of December.

But the houses can't come quick enough.

Ministry of Social Development deputy chief executive housing Scott Gallacher acknowledges his team rates Douglas' need to move to a new home as "high".

He said all of the tenants in Douglas' housing block were being offered alternative homes in Tamaki and that his team would continue to help Douglas "find a home that matches her needs".

However, Auckland's citywide shortage makes the task of finding a spot in the city's south difficult.

"Unfortunately, housing demand in Auckland is exceeding supply," Gallacher said.

Douglas isn't giving up hope. She continues to ply the ministry with documents pleading her case.

These include doctor's letters detailing her daughter's heart murmurs and her own fall down the stairs in February when she broke her pelvis while holding her 8-week-old son, who was luckily not hurt.

She has also handed in police letters she says shows she is being harassed.

She said her dream is to have her "nana" closer so she can watch her grandkids grow up.