Wellington City Council wants more information about landlords and the state of housing in the city, councillor Tamatha Paul says. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Wellington City Council has announced a new plan to tackle homelessness, unaffordable housing and renters rights.
But the "action-plan" has no funding attached to it or clear timeframes.
Councillor Tamatha Paul, chair of the council's Kōrau Tūāpapa Environment and Infrastructure Committee, said the standard and cost of housing in Wellington was unacceptable.
"It's pretty well known that Wellington is one of the hardest places to rent in New Zealand, maybe even in the world, because of the quality of the homes that we're expected to live in".
The council wants to ensure all Wellingtonians have access to safe, warm, and dry housing, Paul said.
However, the action plan reads more like a well-meaning wish list.
The council plans to pilot a rental inspection service where tenants can get an official check on the quality of their accommodation.
The service would be in partnership with central government and aim to uphold and enforce the Healthy Homes Standards.
Paul said the council wants more information about landlords and the standard of rental housing in the city.
"[The inspection] would support tenants in gathering information to be able to hold their landlords accountable.
"Council has got the powers to apprehend the worst landlords.
"I think we need to get to a point where we can actually name and shame them too."
When asked who would staff the service, Paul said a team was yet to be determined.
"Council might be employing this service ourselves or we might be collaborating with the tenancy inspection service.
"But we will have people going into these homes figuring out whether this these houses are compliant."
Under the new plan, Wellington council will reinstate a strategy to end homelessness in the city.
Its former strategy, Te Mahana, expired in 2020.
Paul said she was disappointed there was not currently a plan in place when the number of people rough sleeping has increased in Wellington.
She was also frustrated that the total amount spent by the council on ending homelessness in the last decade is just $3.3 million.
"If you look at the social cost of neglecting the problem, I can guarantee you that cost will be so much higher than the investment we can put into ending homelessness and treating people who are rough sleeping with dignity".
But Paul could not put a number on how much money was needed to end homelessness in the city now.
She also was not clear on what the new strategy would include but said more support and funding was always needed for organisations like Wellington City Mission and DCM.
To tackle affordable housing for students, the council wants to set up a discussion forum with universities and polytechs to understand what young people need from their housing.
Existing university accommodation in the city was expensive and comes with pastoral services some students could not afford, Paul said.
"A lot of people don't want that. They just want a home that's warm and safe, and that they can get to uni and work really easily."
The council wants to convert old office buildings into apartment accommodation for students and was in conversations with developers about this, she said.
Although, it was not clear how much money will be needed for the renovations and where the money will come from.
"There's obviously a whole bunch of challenges when trying to rejig an office building that's been built to be an office into housing.
"But I think like from a sustainability perspective, this is the best use of those buildings rather than demolishing them and starting again," she said.
Wellington City Council's action plan for housing will focus on a number of other areas such as:
- Planning for Growth
- Consenting Improvements
- Mana whenua and Māori housing
- Homelessness
- Social and public housing
- Affordable housing
- Private rental housing.