Photo: Supplied/ Dan Bailey
Some Wellington community housing tenants struggling to pay rent are scared they'll become homeless, while their landlord sits on a multi-million dollar fund designed to support them.
Landlord Te Toi Mahana's tenant support fund is earmarked for those who can't access a government subsidy.
But it said distributing the money was a complex exercise, and it was urgently trying to work out how to help those in need.
Alan Samson has lived at Hanson Court in the Wellington suburb of Mount Cook for 15 years.
Wellington community housing tenants plead for help to pay rent
He told RNZ the line for the weekly delivery from food rescue organisation Kaibosh kept growing.
"There's a lot more elderly people, pensioners, who come along saying 'I can't afford to eat'," he said.
"We have got so many people that are absolutely, absolutely, just about down and out.
"The only outcome they can see is that they'll have to leave Te Toi Mahana and end up living down on Courtenay Place in a doorway."
Part of the problem was the lack of access to rent relief, and tenants have been holding hui with Te Toi Mahana to try and find a solution.
Rent subsidy inequitable - landlord, MP
Te Toi Mahana is the community housing provider established to take over the Wellington City Council's housing portfolio last year, and manages more than 1600 properties.
Under current regulations, the government's income related rent subsidy does not apply for council housing tenants, only community and state housing tenants.
Te Toi Mahana was formed to solve that problem. But only new tenants, about 10 percent, can now get the subsidy.
That leaves out more than 2500 people whose tenancies were transferred from the council.
Te Toi Mahana board chair Andrew Turner has acknowledged it was a problem.
"It does create an inequity where on the face of it, you've got two different tenants living in almost exactly the same property, but paying different rents."
Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul wrote to Housing Minister Chris Bishop, requesting a meeting to discuss changing the policy.
She argued successive housing ministers under both Labour and National governments had resisted a change to "make rent more fairly distributed" across social and community housing tenants.
"Something has to give, because the consequence of not, is that these people that I know and love will end up homeless, and that is terrifying to me."
But the minister would not commit to any changes.
"While I sympathise with the situation facing former council tenants, the reality is that social housing funding is limited and is most effectively targeted at adding to the overall stock of subsidised housing, as opposed to converting existing affordable rental housing into social houses," Bishop wrote back to Paul.
"Similarly, given the number of people in need of secure, safe and affordable housing in New Zealand, it is important that we prioritise funding towards those in greatest need, as opposed to favouring those who were fortunate enough to have been housed by councils in the past."
Te Toi Mahana yet to distribute $8m tenant support fund
There is money set aside to help those who can't access the subsidy - but so far, it hasn't been touched.
When the council transferred its portfolio to Te Toi Mahana, it also gave the organisation its $7.4 million tenant support fund.
That has now grown to more than $8 million, with interest.
Struggling tenants want their share.
Turner promised the fund was ring-fenced for them, but he was hesitant to dish it out until there was more political certainty.
There was an indication the government would rely on community housing providers to build more homes, rather than Kāinga Ora - which could change the way subsidies worked, he said.
"It becomes difficult to come up with a long-term policy that gets funds to where it's needed, that doesn't come up with unintended outcomes, that doesn't, for example, affect other subsidies or benefits that tenants are entitled to."
But Turner said he was aware tenants needed help urgently, and the board was considering a shorter term use of the fund as a priority.
"Once this option has been fully worked up, the board will be meeting in March to consider how it could be implemented, and to make the appropriate decisions."