Kerre Woodham: Labour has made it immeasurably worse

Cast your mind back to 2016/2017.

The National Government was getting hammered almost daily over the number of people who had been reduced to sleeping in cars because they had nowhere else to live.

For the past two winters of 2016 and 2017 marae in Auckland had opened their doors to families in desperate need of food and showers, and a good night's sleep.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said at the time that record population growth in Auckland was to blame for more pressure being put on the bottom end of the housing market. He said a concerted effort would be made to increase the housing supply and said the government was not failing.

Well Labour were having none of that. They pointed to the state house sell off Andrew Little, then Jacinda Ardern thundered away in the media, pointing to overseas outlets highlighting the shocking problem of homeless Kiwi’s, in a country that prided itself on its generous social welfare legacy. 

Six or seven months was considered shocking.

Now we've got people in emergency accommodation for up to two years, substandard emergency accommodation where violence is a part of life.

Intimidation is a part of life. Gang activity is a part of life. It is no place for children or families. Homelessness became a key platform when Labour was on the campaign trail in 2017. Now we have one of the highest levels of homelessness in the OECD.  

And the reason for the shocking increase can be sheeted home to this well-meaning impotent Government. 

Just about everything they have done to improve the lot of people, they say they care the most for, has blown up in their faces. I have absolutely no doubt they care. They just haven't got a clue how to fix it, despite spending years in opposition, despite railing against a Government that they said was failing, they had the answers, vote for us, we'll fix it. 

They have made it immeasurably worse. 

They can't build social housing fast enough. War was declared on landlords. And not enough assistance is being given to the people in motels to help them get out of the poverty trap that they're in. 

Every single person in emergency accommodation, in these substandard, for the most part motels, should feel justifiably cheated by this Government. 

They were promised so much more. They were promised a place to live. They were promised that they would be able to earn enough to look after their kids.

And they've failed. 

They have been failed by a Government that has failed on just about every metric on which they campaigned for election. 

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