What's in ... the Public Housing Plan 2021-2024?
It’s a busy time in the housing space, with the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) having just released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024. In this journal article, Planalytics’ team member, Lucy Cooper, explores what’s new in the Plan and what it means for those tackling Aotearoa’s housing crisis.
This Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 replaces the Public Housing Plan 2018-2022
What is public housing?
According to the definition in the Public Housing Plan 2018-2022 (PHP 2018), public houses are properties owned or leased by Housing New Zealand (now Kāinga Ora) and community housing providers (CHPs) that can be tenanted by people who are eligible for public housing. Public housing is therefore a general term covering both state and community housing, but it does not currently include housing owned or leased by councils.
If a person cannot afford private rental accommodation, they may be able to live in a public house where the Government pays part of the rent. Tenants must meet certain criteria to qualify for public housing, including being in serious housing need. When assessing serious housing need, the Ministry of Social Development, through Work and Income Te Hiranga Tangata, will look at a person’s current housing situation, including the property’s condition, security of tenure, and how crowded it is; whether the property or area is safe; and the person’s ability to manage a long-term tenancy in private rental accommodation. Generally speaking, prospective public housing tenants must also have a low income and low asset base.
What is the Public Housing Plan 2021-2024?
Public housing is one of a number of initiatives the Government is progressing to address housing need. The Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 (PHP 2021) sets out the Government’s public housing supply intentions for the next four years. It provides information about the location and number of additional public housing places that will be delivered by June 2024.
This PHP takes a place-based approach …
The Ministry for Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) flagged the importance of a place-based approach to an effective housing response in its Briefing for Incoming Ministers (BIM), which we took a closer look at in this journal article. According to the BIM, a place-based approach seeks to understand what happens in a place and why; joining up agencies and stakeholders to act in a place, including through local collaboration; making deliberate, transparent, and informed choices across places; and resetting national settings so all communities are well-positioned to thrive. Using a place-based approach as a key implementation tool is one of the key differences between the current PHP and the 2018-2022 version. The ‘how’ of the earlier version focused primarily on enabling effective partnerships across housing stakeholders and revising funding settings to stimulate supply. The place-based philosophy signals a more holistic approach to housing that will, if delivered effectively, refine Government’s ‘understanding of local and community need, continue to identify priority focus areas for public housing supply, and deliver solutions that meet the immediate and long-term needs of vulnerable individuals, whānau, and communities.’
These are the results MHUD expects to see from implementation of the PHP 2021 through the adoption of place-based approaches.
This approach accords with some of the new language that has been gradually creeping into Government lexicon over the last few years, signalling a move away from housing delivery as simply a ‘nuts and bolts’ exercise towards appreciating housing as a core ingredient in the complex business of making and shaping healthy, functioning communities. For example, the purpose of the Urban Development Act, mandates the activities of Kāinga Ora, is to ‘facilitate urban development that contributes to sustainable, inclusive, and thriving communities’; MHUD’s housing heatmaps, which will help focus effort and resources to those communities experiencing poor housing (and consequently wellbeing) outcomes; and the support for a spatial planning approach explored in the recent Randerson Report. It is very early days in Aotearoa’s journey towards a truly successful and effective place-based approach, but I, for one, welcome the fact that it’s a potential new tool in housing and urban development toolshed.
…And a MAIHI approach
Articulation of Māori interests and needs in the PHP 2018 was very low key, with the focus being largely placed on adapting Housing First to a New Zealand context, which encouraged housing providers to work within a kaupapa Māori framework while following a core set of principles. The establishment of Te Maihi o te Whare Māori - the Māori and Iwi Housing Innovation (MAIHI) Framework for action, has significantly boosted the focus on and representation of Māori-specific housing needs and preferences in this year’s PHP 2021.
What else is new in the PHP 2021-2024?
Refreshingly, the PHP 2021 manages to convey all the urgency of the housing crisis expressed in the 2018 version but in 87.5% fewer pages! Words and tables are replaced with succinct, visually appealing summaries of the character of housing need and work underway to address it for each of the regions, alongside metrics for key data, including the housing register number and a figure for housing deprivation. The housing deprivation is the number of people experiencing severe housing deprivation in a given region and expressed as a percentage of the nationwide total. For example, 6% of people experiencing severe housing deprivation in New Zealand live in Northland. Unsurprisingly, Auckland has the most dire need for housing, with 45% of people experiencing severe housing deprivation living in Auckland.
The local area summaries capture the key housing need data for the regions, as well as summarising the work that is already underway to address housing issues.
Like the MHUD heatmaps, the scale at which housing need is depicted in the PHP 2021 is very broad. Housing providers and stakeholders working in Wairarapa, for example, will not find much in the PHP that speaks directly to them. The overarching message of the PHP is that it ‘will concentrate on areas which are now facing high population growth and where the Housing Register is growing exponentially’. This PHP, then, is clearly focused on tackling chronic housing need, and its succinctness conveys an appropriate sense of emergency. Consequently, however, it has the potential to leave stakeholders in the sub-regions tackling more prosaic housing need (such as Wairarapa) feeling somewhat out of the loop.
The housing needs of Wairarapa ‘left out’ of this year’s PHP
There is more to come …
The PHP 2021 is an important component of the Government’s housing agenda, and a necessary one, given the scale of the housing crisis we face in Aotearoa. However, as we found when we looked under the hood of the BIM, there is more to MHUD than the PHP. For example, MHUD appears to be signalling to CHPs to be prepared to scale up their activities and proactively meet the housing challenge in their areas; and MHUD is committed to actively shape planning and urban development legislation to ensure it effectively responds to housing supply and demand in the long term. Both of these features of the Government’s agenda will impact on the work of councils, CHPs, communities, and housing stakeholders of all stripes in all places across Aotearoa in the coming years.
But is it ambitious enough?
The PHP 2021 has been described as ‘underwhelming’ and ‘cynical’ by some in the public housing sector, with claims the housing numbers in the plan are ‘hopelessly inadequate’ to meet the current crisis. Unsurprisingly, the Government is defending both its record and its response, which has been described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as proceeding at a ‘cracking rate’.
Further action by Government is promised in the coming months, but with the public housing waitlist having grown by 1,000 in two months to a new record high of 22,409, there is a palpable and understandable sense of dismay, urgency and frustration in the public housing sector. Bernie Smith, chief executive of Monte Cecilia Housing Trust, is calling for ‘a paradigm shift’ in how we think and act upon this crisis, with the wider community being better enabled and supported to create effective local solutions quickly and at scale. Without doubt, all eyes will be on Government in the coming weeks and months of 2021 to see how it responds to the public housing sector’s desire to move swiftly and effectively on Aotearoa’s housing crisis.