this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
8 points (100.0% liked)
Aotearoa / New Zealand
1770 readers
24 users here now
Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general
- For politics , please use !politics@lemmy.nz
- Shitposts, circlejerks, memes, and non-NZ topics belong in !offtopic@lemmy.nz
- If you need help using Lemmy.nz, go to !support@lemmy.nz
- NZ regional and special interest communities
Rules:
FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom
Banner image by Bernard Spragg
Got an idea for next month's banner?
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
As someone who's skipped the whole OE and worked hard to scrape together a house deposit, living in a not too great area surrounded by KO homes whilst struggling somewhat to pay the mortgage, I don't get the sensationalism surrounding the news articles focusing on KO lately. Like, I'd love to be able to live in a nicely insulated home where the cost won't exceed 25% of my income. If people take the mickey in this situation we shouldn't be giving them a rent free pass? ie rewarding people for not playing their part in society. Alternative headline: Tenants who don't pay rent get evicted.
Because the outcome is a lot worse for society than unpaid rent if they don't have a roof over their heads.
New Zealand really loves to chase the wrong end of the stick and focus on benefit-bashing. The reality is that there's a much higher magnitude of tax fraud than there is benefit fraud, so how about we focus on the big ticket items first?
That may be true, but what other options do they have to control the behaviour of people in their housing? People are being assaulted and harassed by their neighbors.
We already have clear laws about assault and harrassment. I would like to see those upheld properly.
No one should be able to do those things, whether they are in Kainga Ora or own their own flat in Remuera.
Agreed, if we move on from the topic about not paying rent and onto a discussion around violence/harrassment or destruction of property, that's a policing issue. KO as "landlord" could impose some penalties such as rehousing to a less desirable location or imposing fines, but throwing antisocial or violent people out onto the streets are simply going to make our streets full of more anti-social and violent behaviour that the public-at-large will then encounter. Longer term, we need to adapt our policies across the board to set the next generation up for success so people have less need for social housing and then everybody is better off. But in the circumstances we have today, it helps nobody to kick these people to the curb.
I agree with all these points. Long term I'd like to see a move away from creating ghettos (especially SROs to more pepperpotting.
Pigs are more likely to fly than do that.
Maybe. But I would think that's more of an argument for a) police funding and b) pepperpotting which is international best practice for social housing anyway.
When I lived in leafy suburbs I once saw the police arrive within 5 minutes because a passerby had peed on someone's letterbox.