Improving access to social housing for those most in need

Suitable housing plays an important role in people’s ability to do well in life, raise healthy families, and succeed in education and work. We delivered new housing functions to help people with the greatest need access social housing and to help others move towards housing independence if they are able to.

The social housing market

Securing social housing has never been easy, as demand has nearly always outstripped supply.

Over the next 20 years, the demand for social housing is expected to increase. We know that the demand for social housing is increasing rapidly in areas such as Auckland. In some locations we expect demand to be stable, and in others to decrease over time.

Overall, we will purchase 65,000 tenancies through the Income-Related Rent Subsidy by 2017/2018, which is 3,000 more than we purchased in 2014/2015.

The transfer of social housing

The transfer of social housing assessment functions, together with the extension of the Income-Related Rent Subsidy to community housing providers, forms part of a suite of changes to improve the diversity and effectiveness of social housing. The reforms will help ensure there is healthy, suitable and affordable housing for those most in need.

Since April 2014 we have been responsible for:

• screening and assessing people’s eligibility for social housing
• managing the social housing waitlist (the register)
• referring potential tenants to approved social housing providers, including Housing New Zealand
• calculating and reviewing income-related rents and Income-Related Rent Subsidies
• providing options and advice on alternative housing
• managing social housing debt and fraud investigations.

We carried out 29,273 assessments during 2014/2015 and reduced the number of people on the social housing register by an average of 70 a month.

Tenancy reviews

We started carrying out tenancy reviews from 1 July 2014 to help support those who are able to move towards housing independence, and to make social housing available to those who need it.

Over the course of the year we started reviewing over 1,800 tenants’ eligibility for social housing. At 30 June 2015:

• 150 tenants have moved into a private rental
• 11 tenants have purchased their own homes.

Housing support products

On 1 July 2014, we introduced a package of six housing support products[1] to help address barriers to accessing alternative housing. These products meet needs not covered by other forms of assistance.

At 30 June 2015, 173 people received a housing support product, utilising a total of 348 housing products.

Housing New Zealand data migration programme

Client social housing information in the Northgate database is now viewable in our new Curam client management system. The system has information about all social housing tenants including those on benefits as well as non-beneficiaries.

This transfer involved more than 63,000 current tenancies, another 5,000 applicants from the social housing register and many more historical records. This gives us a more complete picture of tenants’ situation and the help tenants and their families may be entitled to.

Purchasing Intentions

In April 2015 we released our Purchasing Intentions to provide clear signals to the market about the nature of the demand for social housing. This will help providers to make more informed decisions about where to invest when sourcing social or affordable housing.

This is the first time we have pulled together this information, and over time we expect to build on it as we learn more from the social housing sector. We will be seeking feedback from the sector on what other information is needed to support providers’ investment decisions and to increase the number of tenancies they provide.

Footnotes

[1] This includes: assistance with bonds, letting fees, moving assistance, references for prospective landlords, tenancy costs cover, and an incentive payment for some clients to exit social housing in areas with high demand.