Minister confirms huge risk to future of Community and Rural Housing

The Green Party has grave concerns for the future of community housing projects and the Rural Housing programme.

In questions to Housing Minister Phil Heatley in Parliament this afternoon, Green Party Housing Spokesperson Sue Bradford asked what guarantees he could give on the future of both the Housing Innovation Fund (HIF) and the Rural Housing programme (RHP).

HIF provides funding support for community sector and iwi housing organisations, and the RHP provides funds to help repair substandard housing in rural districts.

“While the Greens initially welcomed an announcement from Mr Heatley that he is boosting the HIF fund from $12m to $20m, it now appears the extra money may - in effect - be taken from the Rural Housing Programme, and that the RHP is in fact going to disappear altogether.

“This is simply smoke and mirrors, giving with one hand and taking away with the other,” Ms Bradford said.

“We are also apprehensive that the Minister plans to cut all HIF funding for feasibility studies and infrastructure capacity in the community housing sector, which means almost all groups will risk going under very quickly.

“This move will also stamp out all prospect of innovation for the forseeable future, a tragedy at a time when the community housing sector has a potentially huge role to play in creating jobs while meeting desperate housing need.

“Capital for construction is badly needed, but this must not be at the expense of the ability of housing organisations to survive.

“It is likely that only a few large corporate NGOs will outlast this process to the detriment of a number of fantastic but smaller community, iwi and hapu initiatives.

“I believe Mr Heatley’s responses today show the depth of the National’s Government lack of understanding of how community sector organisations survive and flourish in the real world.

“I call on National to think again before they risk the almost wholesale decimation of the fledgling community housing sector and the Rural Housing Programme.”