Rising rental prices creating a new class of 'working poor', support groups warn

Tauranga mum Kristal Heke lives in a motel with six children - including newborn twins - despite her partner working full-time as a painter.

Families with young children crowded into motels are part of a new class of "working poor" being driven into poverty by rising house prices and soaring rents, support agencies warn.

Motels are increasingly being used as emergency accommodation as a severe shortage of affordable housing puts struggling families under strain.

Salvation Army social services national practice manager Jono Bell said more people came to the support group in the past year for help with housing than almost any other issue.

"What we are hearing from our centres is that [homelessness] is affecting a wider section of the population."

The Army said four out of 10 families living in poverty were now "working poor", battling to get by despite one or more householder being in full-time employment.

They included, until recently, Tauranga mum Kristal Heke, who was living in a motel with six children — including newborn twins — despite her partner working full-time as a painter. They were found transitional housing only last week.

The Salvation Army points to the rising number of families who came to the support group for food parcels in 2017 - 60 per cent of whom had never sought help before.

"It's difficult to explain that in any other way than because of rent rises," Army senior policy analyst Alan Johnson said.

"There was an increase in government support, more jobs than ever before and wages have been rising - but rents have been rising faster."

The only way to address this poverty was to tackle underlying issues in the housing market, the Army said.

Salvation Army senior policy analyst Alan Johnson says rents have risen faster than Government support, job vacancies and wages.

The new Labour-led Government claims it is, having promised to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade as part of its KiwiBuild programme and 6400 new state homes over the next four years.

However, doubts remain - including from within the Government's own Treasury department - that the building industry has enough workers to meet the ambitious construction timeframes.

Despite this, one short-term Government plan is working, Te Puea Memorial Marae chair Hurimoana Dennis said.

As winter looms, his marae has again opened its doors to homeless families in a continuation of a programme it started in 2016.

Back then many families arrived without notice, having been sleeping in their cars.

"They had half the kitchen sink in the back of the car, and you could see physically they were sleeping in their vehicles," Dennis said.

But now there seemed to be far less homelessness and families living in their cars and vans because a lot had gone to motels, he said.

"So the agencies and government of the day have responded well to getting them out of their cars and at least to some place for a short time."

Yet finding longer solutions will take more than just finding ways to pay the rent.

Family violence, poverty, debt, poor decision making and rising living prices were prevailing causes of homelessness among those Te Puea marae helped, Dennis said.

"To be fair, homelessness is a spotlight that highlights other issues," he said.

Working poor in numbers

• Four in 10 families living in poverty were working poor with at least one member of the household in full-time work, according to the Salvation Army

• In 2017, the Salvation Army gave out 62,000 food parcels to 30,000 families - 60 per cent of whom had never sought help before

• One in every 100 Kiwis are homeless - the worst homeless rate in the OECD

• 7890 Kiwis are on the public housing waiting list as of March, up from 6182 three months earlier

• The Labour-led Government has pledged to build 100,000 affordable homes, 6400 state homes within four years, and spend $100 million tackling homelessness