MPs have been asked to halt housing redevelopment and urban renewal plans, which residents say are destroying communities and leaving state houses vacant.
Residents from Glen Innes in Auckland, Maraenui in Napier and Pomare in Lower Hutt appeared before Parliament's social services committee on Wednesday.
They told MPs many families feel they are being pushed out of their homes unfairly and without due consultation.
Moepai Temata, a resident affected by the Northern Glen Innes Redevelopment Project, says she has lived at her her house for 49 years, and the news she'd have to move was a rude shock.
"2005 my husband's both legs were amputated above the knee, 2009 our house was renovated to suit my husband's needs.
"When we moved in ... in 1964 the grass was as high as the windows in the bedrooms. Nowadays we have fruit trees, flowers growing. This is a lovely property."