Brooke Stanley: Manaaki Rangatahi Spokesperson on Kainga Ora cracking down on rent debt

A group fighting youth homelessness says Kainga Ora's crackdown on rent debt will exacerbate housing insecurity.  

The housing provider's announced it will terminate tenancies with people who skip rent and don't attempt to get back on track.  

It says the new policy will also help it engage with tenants when rent debt is beginning to mount.  

Manaaki Rangatahi Spokesperson Brooke Stanley told Francesca Rudkin they’re worries about the lack of alternatives to emergency housing that the Government is putting forward. 

She says they’re also worried about the lack of strategy for addressing homelessness, as the previous plan ended in 2023 and there’s nothing in place to ensure that the work is continued. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right advocates are warning a tough approach on rent debt
from the country's biggest landlord will force more people onto
the streets. Coming or wants to crack down on tenants
with rent arears, some who owe tens of thousands of
dollars in months of unpaid rent. Brooks Stanley joins me
now from Manaki Rangatahi, an advocacy group which aims to

(00:21):
prevent and end youth homelessness. Thanks for being with us, Brooke,
good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
What's your reaction to this.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I think that the announcement made yesterday by the minister
is going to increase and make come business worse, and
we can't look at this announcement in isolation of the
other announcements they've made. Instead of investing billions into prisons,
they should be investing this money into preventative solutions like warm,

(00:54):
affordable and universal housing and looking for cope oper multi solutions,
because we know that those are solutions that are working
on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Brook Are you worried that this particular approach will affect
younger tenants.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
We're worried that it will impact everybody who is in
a KO house. We're worried about the pipeline from youth homelessness,
because we know that that then as an indicator of
homelessness itself. We're worried that there are no alternatives to

(01:29):
emergency housing that the government is putting forward, and we're
worried about the lack of strategy for addressing homelessness. There
was a Homelessness Plan from twenty twenty until twenty twenty three,
and at the moment there is nothing in place to
carry on that MAHI or ensure that we work towards

(01:52):
preventing and ending homelessness in ALTERI.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Will so brookers people are evicted, where will they go?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
And that's what our christ is to give them the
announcements while previous announcements made about emergency accommodation, we know
that we're in amongst we're in the midst of a
housing crisis, and there's no alternatives being put forward for
emergency housing for addressing the immediate harm of that. But

(02:21):
then also there's no long term strategy either. We know
that people are ending up on the streets there and
there's ending up in overcrowded housing, and we're already seeing
an increase of homelessness with people going back to living
in their cars.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Brook, Why aren't tenants paying their rent?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I think that's a good question, and I think we
need to be looking at the wider context. We know
that KO housing is provided to some of our most
disadvantaged Puno that the reason why people are in KO
housing is because it's affordable, but that people in their

(03:06):
spaces are often experiencing poverty, They're experiencing high complex needs.
There's a lot of intergenerational issues, and so we need
to look to be addressing those long term and looking
to short term solutions to ensure that that harm is addressed,
those issues are addressed first, but also looking to longer

(03:29):
term solutions to ensure that you know that we are
ensuring the right to housing, that everybody has a warm,
safe and affordable home and alter.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
It or so, how do we resolve this because the
government can't keep sort of paying off tens of thousands
of dollars in people's rent.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
I think that the government is there to serve the
communities and that they shouldn't be looking to run using
them as a business. And I think if we look
at centering the needs of people in the space and
actually people in our communities, then the solutions will the

(04:07):
solutions are there. We can ensurying the right to housing.
We can have a strategy to ensure that there is
no homelessness altered, or we can implement a duty to
assist to ensure that no government department can turn people
away if they're experiencing homelessness. The government has all the

(04:28):
power and the resources to do that. We saw them
enact that power during COVID with the previous government, and
we're wondering where their energy is from this government and
confronting the issue of homelessness and even poverty and alter
These are huge crises that are happening, and we've seen

(04:50):
a massive increase in homelessness and even poverty with this government,
and the harm that causes in our communities. Is this disturbing?
It's horrendous, especially given the you know, we've just had
them apologize for the report that's come out for people
that have been abused in state of faith based care

(05:13):
and so you know, if we have that apology and
no actions to ensure that those things don't happen again,
and some of our Finno who have experienced have been
in state care in KO housing, Yeah, it's empty. Those
apologies are empty.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, look, Broke, appreciate your thoughts on this this morning.
That was Broke Stanley. There from Monarchi finger Taki for
more from Earli Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
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