Cabinet approves changes on social housing register

The changes include:

• Reducing from three to one the number of times a person can decline a home without a good and sufficient reason before they are removed from the social housing register.
• Where reasonable, requiring people on the social housing register to name a minimum of three suburbs they could live in, up from one.

“Every case will be assessed on its merits and most people who decline a house have a good reason for doing so such as health, safety or security concerns,” Mrs Bennett says.

Nearly 10,000 social housing offers were made last year and of those 3,453 were declined, with 414 for unacceptable reasons such as wanting a garage or a bigger back yard, Ms Bennett commented.

Under the changes people who refuse a property without a good reason may be removed from the social housing register for 13 weeks.

The Salvation Army says this will put incredible pressure on community housing. Hear comments from Campbell Roberts here.

Read more here. Hear the radio live interview with Paula Bennett here.