A man with a health condition that requires him to take multiple showers a day says a lack of hot water in his Kāinga Ora home over a six-week period was akin to torture.
David, who wished to keep his last name secret, has bladder cancer, which put him at the top of the waiting list for Kāinga Ora housing.
But when he moved in on March 28 he noticed there were water problems.
The issues meant he had to shower without hot water for the next six weeks.
"Having to shower with cold water five times a day - that's next to bloody getting tortured," he told Newshub.
David's cancer has left him with dual incontinence, which requires him to have multiple showers a day - usually as many as five. So when he turned on the tap and discovered low-pressured, lukewarm water, he knew he probably had a leak that needed to be fixed.
David repeatedly reported the leak to Kāinga Ora, but it took six weeks until he was finally moved into temporary accommodation.
"All this time I have been telling them, 'Look I've got double incontinence, I've got bladder cancer, I have five showers a day, sometimes at 2am in the morning. I have had to have cold showers for the last six weeks.'"
Kāinga Ora sent multiple tradespeople to fix the water cylinder, but each time nothing changed. David, who worked as a builder for 25 years, said the problem was a leak in a water pipe rather than a problem with the hot water cylinder itself.
He said he had told the tradespeople and Kāinga Ora what the problem was but they wouldn't listen to him, leading to the process of getting the pipe fixed being drawn out for weeks after multiple failed attempts.
"[They think] I am a Māori living in [public] housing, what do I know?" David said. "But I am here for medical reasons, cancer - that doesn't mean I didn't have a life before."
Kāinga Ora's regional director for north and west Auckland Taina Jones said they believe there has been constant hot water at the property, but the pressure and temperatures have not been at levels they would normally expect.
"Our tradespeople have attended several times, working through the necessary steps to adjust the hot water cylinder and check for water leaks, and the issue appears to be caused by a couple of factors, namely that [David] has been turning off his hot water cylinder, and there is a previously undetected leak in a water pipe under the concrete floor of the home which could be contributing to lower water pressure and temperature."
However, David told Newshub he had turned off the hot water cylinder because it was costing him double in power bills for lukewarm water of around $300 a fortnight.
Kāinga Ora customers' water bills are covered by the agency, while tenants are responsible for paying their rent, bond, telephone, power and gas bills.
According to The Cylinder Guy's website, water leaks cost you money by increasing electricity and water usage, as 30 percent of the average power bill is spent on heating hot water. The site advises customers with leaking hot water cylinders to turn off the water.
David said during one of phone calls a lady from the agency told him to just boil the jug.
"No one was listening. They failed in upholding their end," he said.
Last week, a tradesperson found a leak in a water pipe under the bathroom and Kāinga Ora said work started on Monday to repair the leak, which is expected to be complete by next Tuesday.
In the meantime David has been put in a hotel, but he says it was "unacceptable" how long he had to wait for temporary accommodation.
"If I was an able-bodied person I would understand, but for somebody in my situation this is bullshit."
Jones admitted David could have been moved to temporary accommodation quicker.
"Kāinga Ora is committed to ensuring that our customers are living well with dignity and stability in homes that are warm, dry and healthy," he said.
"Where we become aware of an issue in a Kāinga Ora home, we work with our customer to understand the problem and support them while we resolve it.
"However, I want to acknowledge that, given [David's] health needs, the offer to move to temporary accommodation while we worked to resolve the water issue at his home could have happened more quickly."
Kāinga Ora said they would compensate David for any increase in power costs and David told Newshub they offered him compensation of rent on Thursday - just after we contacted the agency for comment.
But David said it doesn't solve the problem.
"It doesn't matter what they do from now on, it's not going to change anything - the damage is done," he said. "The way that they brushed it over like it was nothing, it was like an everyday thing."
