Housing New Zealand needs to be more accessible to clients, says a Wanganui woman who often sees families struggling to meet private house rental costs.
YWCA Wanganui manager Fee Ali said she knew of a family of five moving to a much smaller house because the mother's job was onlyseasonal, and the family could not afford to stay where they were. "Off the top of my head, I can think of three families who are not classed as suitable for state housing," she said.
"The criteria seem to be really difficult. Accessing people to talk to at Housing NZ also seems to be tricky for families."
She thought rules around who could live in a state house should be relaxed. "There needs to be a bit more leniency around the criteria. There are families out there who are really struggling. You would have thought that we would have state houses ... that are full."
She thought it was "ridiculous" to have vacant houses when some families who did not quite meet the criteria could occupy them. She was also concerned about the plan to sell state houses as part of the FirstHome scheme, where the homes were sold at a lower cost and eligible people could get a 10 per cent grant toward the deposit.
People can be eligible for the grant if their annual gross income before tax is $53,000 or less, or a combined $80,600 for two or more applicants. Applicants should be buying a home for the first time but previous home owners may be eligible if they meet all other qualifying criteria.
"I'm really concerned about who's going to be purchasing those houses," Mrs Ali said. "Unless there's some criteria to not have them sold to investors, they are going to end up being put on the market for higher rents."
The FirstHome scheme eligibility checklist says the buyer must be planning to live in the house for at least three years.
