New social housing quarterly report out

The report shows that:

·$550 million total housing support provided in the March 2017 quarter (89 days)

·Helped 1800 households into homes

·4865 people on the housing register – up 2 per cent on last quarter

·9218 emergency housing Special Needs Grants paid to 2616 clients – total spent $8.8 million

·Around 66,000 social houses across New Zealand

·$20.4 million was spent on Accommodation Supplement payments per week

·2,616 individual clients and $8.8 million was spent on the emergency housing special needs grant for the last quarter

Moira Lawler of Lifewise Trust talks to Newstalk ZB about what these latest figures mean: http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/04/homelessness-on-the-rise-in-new-zealand.html

The new Social Housing Quarterly Report can be found at http://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/social-housing/msd-social-housing-quarterly-report-march-2017.pdf

The latest figures on the Housing Register can be found at www.housing.msd.govt.nz/information-for-housing-providers/register

More comment in media with a call for building more social housing instead.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/huge-sum-spent-emergency-accommodation-sparks-calls-build-social-housing-instead

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842084