Speech to the Australasian Housing Institute annual conference

Thank you for inviting me to open your conference.

You certainly have a thought provoking day ahead of you.

Housing New Zealand chief executive Dr Lesley McTurk and I are both delighted to be talking to you this morning.

Dr McTurk will be talking about imminent changes to Housing New Zealand, and I want to focus on the community housing sector.

This is a sector that plays a vital role in looking after customers who may not be able to be helped by Housing New Zealand or by the private market.

The needs of these customers range from crisis accommodation for people fleeing domestic violence, to supported home ownership opportunities.

The sector is well placed to deliver these services because providers know what their clients need and can deliver at a local level.

In this respect, clients get a service that is both needs-based and community-based.

The government recognises the community housing sector is under-developed and is struggling, which is why I am going to talk about a couple of projects that will go some way in addressing this.

Project 1

The first project is about helping people get back on their feet by improving government funded crisis and transitional housing. 

This project is led by Housing New Zealand, but also involves other Government agencies such as the Ministry of Social Development, Te Puni Kokiri, and Corrections.

The term "crisis and transitional housing and support services" describes short-term supported accommodation and support services for individuals, couples or families in crisis.

It is about helping people return to, or acquire, appropriate long-term accommodation. 

On the way to securing long-term accommodation, the person may move from crisis housing to transitional housing.

This work is to help families like those in South Auckland who were in the media last year because they were living in poor quality and overcrowded boarding houses.

(As an aside, addressing the rights and needs of those in boarding house accommodation is one of the features of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which is currently before Parliament.  The Bill extends the Residential Tenancies Act to protect access to advice, information and dispute resolution services for some of our most vulnerable people).

One factor in the much-publicised overcrowding problems has been the inability of families to obtain the crisis and transitional housing they needed.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the demand for most forms of crisis housing and support services is increasing, and this is no surprise given the current economic circumstances.

The Salvation Army told Housing New Zealand that it alone takes 300 families a year. 

Yet it is still turning people away.

In August and September of this year consultation was undertaken with providers of crisis housing and support services.

At these talks, providers identified two key issues:

• 1. Information;


• 2. And bureaucracy.

We need better information about the nature of the demand for crisis housing and support services. 

With poor information it's no surprise that the availability of services for certain groups of people is limited. 

This includes people with mental health and/or addiction problems, single women, pregnant women, and women suffering domestic violence who have older children.

Then there's bureaucracy. 

Overly cumbersome funding structures for providers and a lack of transparency are an issue, as are the different policies and processes of government agencies, which make it difficult for providers to work together.

The consultation was constructive because the crisis housing and support service providers had input into the types of solutions needed to address these issues, acknowledging the fact that there is no new funding available and we have got to get more from less.

As a result, the project proposed both short-term solutions of one to two years, and longer-term solutions of three to five years, to address these issues. 

Two short-term initiatives that have been proposed to improve crisis and transitional housing and support services are: first, developing a shared information system for crisis housing; and second, improving funding structures and coordination with other government agencies through joint planning and integrated contracting.

Information generated by these short-term initiatives can be used to improve future funding decisions.

For example, it is proposed that the shared information system will initially be implemented in Auckland, with a long-term view of extending it nationally.

It is anticipated that better access to appropriate housing and services will reduce costs for individuals, families, communities and government.

This will happen through reduced pressure on health services, and the reduced costs associated with poor health, education, and employment outcomes.

There will be improved housing outcomes for Maori and Pacific peoples, and other groups that tend to be over-represented as users of crisis housing and support services.

While the focus of this work is only on government funded housing, improving these services will help people move from crisis to independence in a timely way, thus reducing the pressure on other services and providers as well.

After all, we all recognise that community providers play an important role in the delivery of these services. 

They are well placed to deliver these services because they have specialised client-focused knowledge.

They also have the flexibility to take up opportunities and respond to community needs quickly by targeting delivery at a local level.

It is because of this important role that the Government wants to look at how we can grow the sector to deliver affordable housing and meet more housing needs.

Homelessness

Any discussion about crisis and transitional housing is going to touch on the issue of homelessness.

I'd like to take a moment to check off what the government has been doing in this topical area.

We have a lot of good work already underway, particularly the multi agency work being done in Auckland, which could provide a template for further work in other centres. 

This work resulted in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Housing New Zealand Corporation, the Auckland City Council, the Auckland City Mission and 10 other stakeholder groups on November 26 to address homelessness in Auckland.

My colleague the Minister for Social Development and Employment and I have agreed to a number of directions, which include:

• A feasibility study into a shared information system to provide a list of all available emergency accommodation in Auckland


• A proposal to complete a research project to explore the nature of demand for crisis and transitional housing and support, and the availability of services


• Initiatives to improve inter-agency cooperation and coordination, in particular between the Ministry of Social Development and Housing New Zealand

I have agreed with the Minister of Social Development that as the Minister of Housing it is appropriate that I should be the lead Minister for in co-ordinating the government's response to the issue of homelessness. 

I have a strong desire to enact the Residential Tenancy Act changes that cover those who from time-to-time find themselves in boarding house accommodation.

I feel like we have a good relationship with the people and groups who address homelessness on a day-to-day basis and I look forward to taking the relationship forward.

Project 2

This brings me to the second project: focusing on long term solutions to housing needs.

In its election manifesto, National made a commitment to increase support to the community housing sector.

As promised, funding for the Housing Innovation Fund was increased from $12 million to $20 million, with $5 million set aside for the Maori Development Partnerships programme.

We also recognised that an increase in funding is only one change needed to support the growth of community housing. 

Other changes are needed to ensure there is sustainable funding for this sector.

Because of this, we changed the funding criteria for the Housing Innovation Fund in three key ways to help government funding go further and put social housing providers on a sustainable footing. 

First, the changes made require applicants to bring significant assets to the table.

The reality is, if we can put in a dollar and have a dollar come from somewhere else, we can build twice as many houses.

To increase housing supply, the fund was also changed to support the building of new houses, rather than upgrading old ones.

We are currently spending tens of millions of dollars every quarter upgrading state houses, and insulating and heating private ones, so our commitment to improving living conditions for families is already beyond question.

That is why we wanted HIF money for new builds only, not repairs.

We're doing plenty of work in the repair area.

The final change was that funding would only be given to groups who have plans to grow and whose growth plans are realistic.

These three fundamental changes were to make sure funding went to organisations whose core function was social housing.

Many organisations have other social services as their core function but have decided to evolve to provide housing as well.

The government, however, thinks that the best way to increase affordable housing is to fund providers with a high level of housing expertise.

Maori housing

As I have mentioned already, $5 million of the Housing Innovation Fund was set aside for the Maori Demonstrations Partnerships programme.

This programme involves Housing New Zealand Corporation working with Maori entities to increase Maori home ownership, and increase the supply of affordable housing available to them.

Maori already have the most significant asset: land. 

If they want to use it for housing we encourage them to do so. 

As we see it, four boxes need to be ticked for Maori to build more houses on their own land, not all of which can involve the government.

First, Maori groups have to agree they want to put houses on their land and how they intend to that. 

That's their business.

Second, they need to manage the sourcing and installation of necessary infrastructure on the land to make housing viable.

That too is largely their business, but RMA and Building Act changes will help, as will our national drive for investment in core infrastructure, including roading and broadband.

Third, local authorities need to make sure Maori land isn't inappropriately zoned - the resource is no good to Maori interested in building houses if its zoned rural, allowing for very few dwellings. 

We're working with councils now to make those changes.

And finally there's the issue of securing mortgage finance, which is why we're putting the banks' minds at ease by broadening the Welcome Home Loan scheme to underwrite their risk when borrowing for housing on multiple owned land.

The Maori Demonstration Partnerships will see the development of up to seven Maori Housing initiatives by July 2010.

This signals a new direction for the Government in the way it works with iwi and Maori organisations.

Reviewing future of Housing Innovation Fund beyond 2009/10

The future of the Housing Innovation Fund is being considered in a broader context around how to grow community housing in New Zealand. 

This review will inform funding for community housing from 2010/2011 onwards. 

The starting point of this review is an assumption that with appropriate development and support, the New Zealand community housing sector can deliver significant-scale housing solutions to meet specific housing needs. 

This assumption is based on experience in Australia and the United Kingdom about the development of their community housing sectors.  

The outcome sought by any further investment by government in the community housing sector is that more houses are built and more people are housed than would otherwise be the case.

Engagement with providers/other stakeholders

As part of this review, officials spoke to those involved in community housing.

It was through this process that the groups let government know they wanted a vision, direction and bold plans.

Other issues were raised that I would like to address briefly.

The first issue was the certainty of funding.

Stakeholders advised us that one year funding does not let them plan ahead or put them on a sustainable footing.

The other issue was that the sector wanted other forms of government support, including access to land at discounted prices. 

I understand many groups would prefer options other than no-interest loans in order to support their growth.

This includes access to land, and support that underwrites holding costs or private borrowings. 

There was also interest in the idea of less experienced organisations partnering with experienced housing providers. 

For example, there are Pacific organisations that have assets but no housing provision experience.

By working in partnership with other social housing providers, they could attain better housing solutions for Pacific people.

The community housing sector needs to grow in order to meet housing needs.

This is where I see the role for community housing providers as complementary to the role of Housing New Zealand Corporation. 

Community housing providers can achieve the best value for government investment by focusing on housing needs not addressed by state housing assistance.

Community housing providers can also make a difference to supported long-term rental housing and affordable home ownership. 

There is strong demand for specialist housing, and community housing providers have a firm track record in this area. 

Conclusion

I am interested in continuing to work with organisations that have housing as their core function, and are able to make any contribution from government go a long way by leveraging contributions from other sources. 

I am interested in providing certainty to those groups and clear direction about the needs to be met.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the programme.