Last year, the cost of some student rentals in Dunedin increased by almost $40 a week.
The DCC’s website shows an average rent of $388 a week at the end of last year, compared with $283 five years earlier.
That’s an increase of nearly 40c on the dollar.
Over that time, wages rose by only 20%.
The unemployment benefit plus accommodation supplement for a young person in Dunedin increased by even less than wages (around 16%).
Families who’ve been locked out of buying a house because of the punishing increases in house values, may feel they’ve been held hostage by the tight rental market.
There are just not enough places to rent.
Now imagine you’re 17-years-old and homeless.
If you’re a resident of one of the Missions’ two Transition Houses, you may still be in school.
Landlords will worry about your ability to legally sign a lease.
You’ll be trying to work through what has happened to get you to this situation, you’ll almost certainly be dealing with fraught family circumstances or worse, and the mental health impacts of precarious living.
Yet the residents do amazingly well.
I’ll share two (anonymous) stories from our staff to illustrate:
Mia was ready to transition out of the House, she had found employment and accommodation. However, she was unable to find the money for her bond.
Because she had started working, Youth Services couldn’t help, and because she was under 18, Work and Income were initially unable to help.
Mia was anxious she was going to lose the place she thought she had secured, but Mission staff and the Ministry of Social Development put in some hard work and got her application for support across the line.
Ari left us having achieved all the goals she set when she moved in: she finished school with NCEA level 2, she wanted to get her driver’s licence, she got that.
She wanted to get a job and she did that as well.
She said that she wanted to get some counselling for past trauma, and she organised that too.
The last thing on her list was to find a place to live which was a lot harder than she anticipated, especially after being turned down over 100 times, but in the end, Ari got that sorted too.
If you would like to support the Mission’s work with a donation, please visit www.givealittle.co.nz and search for The Methodist Mission.
