Broken Homes

Charles Waldegrave on our failed housing system and what we can do about it. How have we become
a country with one of the highest housing costs per income in the OECD? How did we transition from
one of the most affordable countries to buy a house in, to one of the least affordable? Why is New
Zealand growing the divide between an asset-owning class and a non-owning asset class? Charles has
been working in this space for thirty years and latterly on research for the Waitangi Tribunal’s inquiry
into Māori housing – “Māori Home Ownership 1991 – 2021”, with another report on Social Housing to
come. He will demonstrate, with evidence, how Aotearoa provided affordable housing stability during
the post-war years and then abandoned that achievement and created the conditions for the current
housing crisis. He will reflect on the lessons to be learned and suggest ways to create secure affordable
housing in Aotearoa again.

Zoom: https://vuw.zoom.us/j/9793887986

Charles Waldegrave coordinates the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit. He leads the research
team that sets New Zealand’s ‘Living Wage’ each year. With colleagues, he set up the New Zealand
Poverty Measurement Project which developed 7 of the 10 measures of poverty used in the Child
Poverty Reduction Act 2018 and included housing costs. He was a member of the Welfare Expert
Advisory Group where he led the Housing workstream. He has published numerous papers on housing,
and most recently a commissioned report for the Waitangi Tribunal: ‘Māori Home Ownership 1991- 2021’.

Chair: Paul Gilberd, CEO of Community Housing Aotearoa

Charles Waldegrave_31 July 2024_Our Failed Housing System