Bernie Smith: Social housing commentator says people are misusing the housing system

Emergency housing may not be being used the way it's intended, with application rejections on the up.

Data obtained by our newsroom shows applications have dropped significantly to the end of June, but the number being declined, is rising.

Rules introduced last year allow officials to decline grants if they believe a person has caused or contributed to their immediate need for housing. 

Social housing commentator Bernie Smith told Mike Hosking that people have become too reliant on the Government to back them up. 

He says it was never set up to do that - it was to support the most vulnerable, like those kicked out of home. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Interesting numbers around emergency housing in Auckland. More applications are
being declined than granted. So it's the settings that basically
deny support if the need is self inflicted. So nine
hundred and twenty one applications have been turned down this
between August of twenty four and May of twenty five.
Bernie Smith, social housing commentator of course, is back. Well,
this's Bernie. Very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Morning mine.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
So what we're dealing with here is, I think Tama
Potucker would argue, is basic personal responsibility. What specifically do
you know? Does that mean.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
A very good question. I think personally, if you're living
with drug addiction or abuse, living without housing, all those
sorts of circumstances, you're living in crises. So personal responsibilities
gets very hard to put into action when you're living

(00:54):
by our.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well, the application stats, I didn't realize that it got
so bad, but twenty seventeen it was between two and
four thousand a month. It then went in twenty nineteen
to nine thousand to ten thousand, and COVID was fifteen
thousand a month. I mean, you can't have that many
people to play. How come so many people are in
so much trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think things have worsened economically as well, the slow
down in the build program for housing. Budgets are just stretched,
and agencies providing social services have been swamped with families

(01:33):
and needs. So everything's just escalating beyond becoming very difficult
to actually make a difference.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
When Po Tarker talks about young people care as and
parents as opposed to motel rooms, is he being realistic?
I mean, the kids needing help, they would argue because
there's no relationship with the parents or the caregiver. I'm assuming.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, it's a difficult one, Mike. I think you know
when the government bought this policy in years ago for
sixteen year olds to fund them to find some support
or housing and get some food in their bellies for
kids that have been ostracized from their families, that was

(02:20):
a good policy. But the problem is with a lot
of young people, they're just telling their parents where to go,
and they don't like the rules, so they reliant on
the government to back them up. And the difficulty is
that it was never set up to do that. It
was to support the most vulnerable and those that have

(02:41):
been ostracized.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, is it going to be like if this works,
is it going to be like the job seeker light system. So,
in other words, when you're toughen it up a bit
and say there's a few basic responsibilities you're in charge of,
stop looking to the government for everything, at least a
percentage of people will get their act together.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Oh for sure, I think you know. There will be
those that will sort themselves out and get advocates to
advocated on their behalf to get the entitlements they are
entitled to. But there'll be the hardcore that doesn't matter
what you do, how you do it, when you do it,

(03:20):
there's no resolving the issues for them.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Or as a pleasure. Bernie go Well Bernie Smith, social
housing commentator, with us this morning. For more from the
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