Labour and Greens say social housing shake-up will see public housing tenants evicted

Source: Radio New Zealand

The opposition says the government’s social housing shake-up is “cruel” and will lead to more evictions of public housing tenants who will be “driven deeper into poverty”.

But the finance minister has defended the move, saying it’s about fixing an unfairness where those in social housing have “won the lottery” compared to others doing it tough who do not have access.

The government has announced a major shake-up of social housing beginning in this year’s Budget – which will boost weekly support for 110,000 families by almost $15 but leave another 80,000 families worse off by $30 a week.

The change will be paired with more stringent criteria for getting a social house – and possibly new tenancy duration limits and regular check-ins.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the government was “cruel and mean” to hike rents during a cost-of-living crisis.

“Make no bones about it. This is a government that does not care about people on low incomes … the people who benefit from an increase in the accommodation supplement are private sector landlords.”

He refused to say if Labour would reverse it until after next week’s Budget, but said those losing out would include 34,000 people with children, 30,000 pensioners, and 27,000 people with disabilities.

“If Winston Peters wants to boot out pensioners from social housing, he should say so. I’m astounded that Winston Peters, who claims to be a champion for super annuitants, is now basically condoning a hike in rent for the lowest income pensioners,” he said.

Many of those people would be unable to change their circumstances, he said.

“Increasing their rents by another 5 percent relative to their income is a massive blow to them. They already can’t make their ends meet … this is going to be an absolute body blow to people who already can’t keep their head above water.”

He said the answer was to build more public housing.

“We built about 18,000 new houses during the time we were in government, some of those finished after the election … by contrast, this government’s selling them off.”

Labour’s housing spokesperson, Kieran McAnulty, said it was nothing more than a plan to remove support from struggling New Zealanders to save money.

“Christopher Luxon and Chris Bishop are trying to dress up rent hikes and benefit cuts as ‘independence’,” he said, “you do not help families into independence by making them poorer”.

The Greens’ housing spokesperson Tamatha Paul said the reform “cuts costs” at the expense of “our most vulnerable”.

“The reason that people are in Kāinga Ora housing is because they can’t afford the private rental market, so it’s a stupid argument to make,” she said.

She said increasing rents by 20 percent on top of unaffordable food costs, power bills and medical bills was “simply cruel”.

“It’s totally out of touch with reality, and out of touch with the fact that there are thousands of people on the public housing wait list who can’t access a private flat, who need a Kāinga Ora flat, and that’s the only option for them.”

She said she had asked Bishop in recent weeks if he was considering adjusting accommodation supplements or the Income-Related Rent Subsidy.

“He said no – and look what they’ve done.”

Green social development spokesperson Ricardo Menendez March said the government wanted to make social housing tenants and those in poverty “pay the price for their austerity”.

“If the government is concerned about the high cost of accommodation for people in private housing, they need to build more public housing.

“They need to maybe not strip support from the accommodation supplement from those very same people. This is a government that is taking away from our poorest at a time of a cost-of-living crisis, and then turns their back on them and blames them for the very same crisis that they manufactured.”

The party warned the government’s changes would lead to more public housing tenants evicted and driven deeper into poverty.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis argued the changes were not about cutting costs, but reducing unfairness.

“If you’re in a state home and you compare how much income you have with someone in a private rental who’s got exactly the same income as you, you’re $110 a week better off,” she said.

“These changes are about making the system fairer. At the moment, people in social housing effectively have won the lotto, they get so much more support than a family with just as lower income in a private rental. That’s not fair, and our changes are about fixing it.”

She did not think social housing tenants would necessarily feel like lotto winners, but said it was unfair on the families who did not have access to social housing.

“Most social housing tenants, after the changes the government’s putting forward, will still be better off than households with similar income levels and private rentals, and in fact, 110,000 families in private rentals will be better off as a result of the budget.”

She pushed back on the suggestions the money would just go into landlords’ pockets, and said it was a different situation to when she had attacked an increase in student allowances for that reason when in opposition.

“That was quite different, because what happened there was that you had students in one fell swoop get a significant increase in income at a time in the rental market when there were simply not enough houses.

“[Social housing tenants’] income each week will be … on average $15 higher a week as a result of the government’s changes. That will not be a prompt for landlords to increase their rents, because actually what our government is doing at the same time is we are working very hard to increase the supply of housing in this country, including by fast tracking housing developments.”

She said social housing was needed in New Zealand for supporting vulnerable people, but “actually, we need it focused on those who are most vulnerable”.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/labour-and-greens-say-social-housing-shake-up-will-see-public-housing-tenants-evicted/