The Government has a "legal duty" to ensure all Kiwis have a decent home but there are no "effective accountability mechanisms" to make sure it actually is, according to a new report by the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
"Accountability is a crucial feature of good governance, democracy, and human rights. Without it these policies and statements can easily become window-dressing," said Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt.
The report, Strengthening Accountability and Participation in the Housing System, is the first to emerge from the HRC since it launched its housing inquiry in August.
"For many years, successive governments in Aotearoa New Zealand have committed to implement the human right to a decent home," the new report begins, citing various international human rights agreements New Zealand has signed up to.
"Despite these promises, the country faces a housing and human rights crisis caused by decades of neglect. The crisis exposes a failure of public policy and democracy. Democratic institutions with the responsibility to anticipate and swiftly tackle crises have failed to do their job."
Home ownership rates have been falling for decades, and the rental housing stock is on average of poorer quality than those housing owner-occupiers. That's despite homeowners paying a far smaller proportion of their incomes on housing - data in the new report showing nearly half of rental households spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, compared to just over 20 percent of owner-occupied households.
Both measures have blown out over the past 30 years, but more so for renters - and it's getting worse.
"For Māori, and other ethnicities, including Pacific peoples, the data indicates that they face even higher rates of unaffordable housing," the report states. "This increase in housing costs indicates a violation of the right to a decent home, unless there is a compelling explanation or justification."
Hunt said the report backed up a UN statement last year that found New Zealand's housing situation was a "human rights crisis of significant proportions" the Government wasn't doing enough to address.
It's getting so bad, Hunt said the divide between the haves and have-nots is becoming "a major cause of resentment between New Zealanders of different generations and cultures".
The new report calls for:
- "an Act of Parliament which sets out key principles and Tiriti o Waitangi obligations to guide all housing initiatives"
- "an independent accountability mechanism for constructively holding decision-makers to account and to encourage continuous progress"
- "an independent advisory and advocacy group - grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi - to support informed and evidence-based participation in housing policy, including those affected by the housing crisis".
"Accountability is a crucial feature of good governance, democracy, and human rights. Without it these policies and statements can easily become window-dressing. Accountability provides a positive focus on what does and does not work," said Hunt.
The HRC said through 2022 it will release data showing how the Government is doing in terms of making housing affordable.
Responding to the report, Housing Minister Megan Woods rattled off a list of initiatives underway by the Government, including:
- "an overhaul of urban planning and development rules to address the lack of new housing supply"
- "changed tax rules to tilt the playing field away from housing speculation and toward new builds"
- "the biggest programme of public house building in a generation"
- "$3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund to pay for critical infrastructure like pipes and roads to enable new housing is on track to deliver more build-ready land to speed up the pace and delivery of new housing"
- "changes to urban development rules to enable higher density housing in our urban areas"
- "overhauling the Resource Management Act to tackle barriers to building new housing"
- "a dedicated programme of work to ensure Māori are front and centre of housing initiatives for Māori"
- and hundreds of millions of dollars for Māori housing initiative.
"Since we came into Government we have known there is much work to do to turn the housing crisis around, but we are seeing positive signs from the work we have done," said Dr Woods.
"Some of these measures are already making a difference, and they will continue to make a much bigger impact on the housing crisis we inherited in the medium to longer term."
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson welcome the report, but noted it didn't suggest any solutions to the crisis.
"Housing is a human right, and we have been very clear that we need to put all the tools on the table to make sure that New Zealanders can have a decent, affordable home," she said.
The Greens want to remove the five-year brightline test cap, end interest-only mortgages, put in debt-to-income ratios, require investors to have the cash to pay for deposits - not just equity, direct economic stimulus rather than relying on the Reserve Bank, and a Kāinga Ora-led "urban redevelopment and home building programme".
"We also have been consistently calling for rent freezes as part of the COVID response, and launched an extensive online discussion document on how to address unaffordable rents," said Davidson. "Rising rents eat away at household budgets, force people to move home often, and make it harder to save for a first home deposit. We know this cannot continue."
National housing spokesperson Nicola Willis didn't respond.
