A decision to cull the state house waiting list by more than half is unlikely to come as a surprise to low-priority applicants already on the list, a Dunedin social agency manager says.
From tomorrow, only those assessed as having severe or significant housing needs will be eligible for a state house, Housing Minister Phil Heatley announced yesterday.
People assessed with moderate or lower level needs will no longer be eligible and instead will be helped to find housing elsewhere.
Nationally, there was a waiting list of 8044 people on May 31, including 200 in the southern region, which covers the South Island from Timaru south.
From tomorrow, 4686 people will be culled from the waiting list, including 111 in the southern region.
The new system would be fairer, Mr Heatley said.
"Whereas once, [low-priority] tenants would languish on the waiting list with no real prospect of getting a state home, they will now be given assistance to find a home outside state housing, and we think this is a positive."
Housing New Zealand owned or leased 3156 properties in the southern region (1506 in the Dunedin area, 560 in Invercargill, 756 in Timaru and 334 on the West Coast), a spokeswoman said yesterday.
In the past 12 months, only 4% of those assessed with moderate needs and 3% of those with lower-level needs had been granted a house.
Dunedin Anglican Family Care director Nicola Taylor said yesterday state house waiting lists "more or less never moved" and people assessed as being low-priority applicants found it quicker to find a rental from a private landlord than from Housing New Zealand.
"Possibly, the changes won't come as any real surprise to them."
From tomorrow, new tenants would also have their circumstances reviewed once every three years to ensure their housing needs "were being properly catered for", Mr Heatley said.
"When their circumstances improve significantly and they are able to afford a home outside state housing, they will be assisted to move, freeing up a state house for someone in greater need," he said.
Elderly tenants and those with significant disabilities would be subject to a desktop review only, because their circumstances were unlikely to have changed, he said.
"State houses will no longer be the `home for life' they have traditionally been, and I am not sure whether the `home for life' concept was appropriate. If reviews move people through the system and into a state house if they need it, it could be more efficient," Mrs Taylor said.
"But having to shift out of a state house will have an impact on families and children ... It means shifting house, shifting school and losing connections with friends."
Labour housing spokeswoman Moana Mackey said the changes would create enormous uncertainty and instability for tenants and make it harder for struggling families to get into a home.
"Successive National Party Budgets have slashed funding for state housing ... instead of building more houses, National's answer is to boot people off the waiting list and to kick families out of their homes and pretend they don't exist."
- Additional reporting by NZPA
