A social housing advocacy group intends to seek a judicial review of the government's plan to sell more than 1000 state houses in Tauranga.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
State Housing Action, which opposes the sale of state houses, said the need for legal action had become urgent after the government announced last week it had agreed to sell the Housing New Zealand homes to IHC subsidiary Accessible Properties.
The group's Tauranga spokesperson, Vanessa Kururangi, said it hoped to file papers with the High Court this week.
It wanted an indication of how the sale would meet the government's social housing objectives, she said.
"There doesn't seem to be any obligation from the preferred buyer to show any kind of innovation or any future plan for what they're going to do for our state house tenants," she said.
"Our state house tenants are already very vulnerable and wanting information, so we're kind of speaking out on behalf of them."
Ms Kururangi said the government's intentions were appalling when low-income families were facing a housing crisis.
A spokesperson for Minister of Housing Bill English said there was little the government could say until the application for the judicial review had been filed.