MSD Housing Quarterly Report: September 2017

Read the report here:

Housing-Quarterly-Report-Sep2017.pdf

Key facts – September overview

·For the September quarter MSD has spent $563 million on housing support. This year MSD will spend around $2.3 billion on providing New Zealanders with housing support ranging from places in emergency and transitional housing, through to financial support to remain housed.

·MSD is paying more Income-Related Rent Subsidy payments for individual households than before, with the total number of social housing tenancies increasing by 373 over the September quarter.

·The number of people receiving the Accommodation Supplement is relatively stable, but use of Temporary Additional Support has grown significantly.

Social Housing Supply

·MSD’s 2016 Purchasing Strategy seeks an additional 6,400 social houses by June 2020. In this quarter, we’ve reached 69% of the additional houses required in the pipeline.

·There are currently 66,187 social houses. Of these, 4,874 are provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs), and 61,313 are provided by HNZ.

Transitional Housing

·An additional 540 transitional housing places became available in the quarter, with a total of 1,663 places secured for tenanting. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has an end of year target of 2,155 places, which could support 8,600 families each year.

·MSD has reached 75% of the additional transitional houses required to meet the end of year target of 2,155 places.

Emergency Housing

·MSD has seen a 20% decrease in the number of Emergency Housing Special Need Grants (EH SNG) being paid, as more transitional housing places became available in the quarter.

Social Housing Demand – The Social Housing Register

·On the Social Housing Register, the number of people eligible for housing support has increased by 8%, this quarter as more people are talking with MSD about their housing situation.

·As at 30 September the Social Housing Register was up 8% compared to the June Quarter, which is not as high as the 10% increase in the previous quarter.

·As the register increases, the characteristics of households remains relatively unchanged.

·People on the Social Housing Register are generally in some form of housing, with 94% of applicants on the register already receiving housing support from MSD.

Transitions

·Over the quarter, 1,876 applicants from the Social Housing Register were housed, with an average time of 50 days to house. This is the most people housed in the shortest time over the past year.

·Over the September 2017 quarter, 1,859 applicants from the Housing Register were housed, and 17 applicants from the Transfer

·The majority of applicants housed from both registers were for Priority A applicants (1,763 compared to 113 Priority B applicants). When housed, the majority of applicants from both registers went into a Housing New Zealand property 1,599), while 277 were housed in a Community Housing Provider property.

·The use of Housing Support Products increased from the last quarter, up 23.3 percent from $699,344 over the June 2017 quarter to $862,614 over the September 2017 quarter.