A house in Ponsonby for which tenants are paying just $6 rent a week to Housing New Zealand looks destined to remain a mystery.
To protect the tenants' privacy, Housing New Zealand has not even revealed the Auckland location to Housing Minister Mark Gosche.
And Opposition housing spokesman Tony Ryall, who uncoveredthe anomaly this week, says he does not know where it is.
The cheap rent was the result of a transitional measure brought in by National in 1994 to amend the effect of its market rent policy on people over 55, and the rent for the tenants was struck at $156, Mr Ryall said.
Winz, however, paid the tenants an accommodation supplement of $150, which had been based on the full market rent of $350, leaving a net rent of $6 a week.
The transitional measure was to end this year, but when Labour came into power with its income-related rents policy, instead of ending it, cemented the cheap rent, Mr Ryall said. "No one begrudges anyone enjoying these lower rents ... but if it is an anomaly it should be fixed rather than cemented in."
Mr Gosche has a slightly different version of events. He said National was supposed to end the transitional measure 18 months ago, but had not done so because it was aware of the hardship caused by its market rent policy on older people.
In a year, the rent would begin to be increased until it reached the income-related rent level.
National had avoided dropping its transitional measure "because they knew the political fallout would be enormous," Mr Gosche said. "I don't blame them for that, I'm not criticising them in any way. At least it showed they had a heart, that they said this is too hard for these older people ... " in the main ... "
