5. Housing New Zealand—Vacant State HousesHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban DevelopmentHousing New Zealand—Vacant State Houses5. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura) to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development: How many houses owned or managed by Housing New Zealand were vacant on 31 August 2018?Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister of Housing and Urban Development): There were 722 long-term vacant State houses in August. Of these 285 are undergoing major repairs or upgrades and 215 homes are being redeveloped as part of the Government's build programme. Additionally there are 382 State houses vacant because they are in between tenancies or being repaired. There are a further 169 where their leases have expired or they are about to be demolished for redevelopment or are beyond repair. We're committed to keeping the number of vacant homes as low as possible while we build a net additional 6400 public houses. The vacancy rate was as high as 3540 or one in 20 homes under the previous Government. It's now down to one in 50.Hon Judith Collins: How many families are on the Housing New Zealand waiting list for those houses?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: There are approximately 8500 people currently on the waiting list but the turnaround time to get families into State houses has been steadily decreasing. At the end of June 2016 the average turnaround time was 38 days at the end of June 2017 it was 34 days and at the end of June 2018 it was down to 19 days.Hon Judith Collins: How many of those families on the waiting list of around 8500 families for a vacant Housing New Zealand house are living in temporary housing such as motels?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: If the member wants to put that question down in writing I'd be happy to answer it. I don't have the numbers in front of me.Hon Judith Collins: Why are there around 1400 empty State houses when there is a waiting list of he says 8500 Kiwi families for those houses?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well after inheriting a housing crisis after nine years of neglect and the sell-off of 5000 State houses we've got a lot of ground to make up. But I'll say this: our Government will not sit around and leave as many as 400 State houses boarded up and lying vacant due to bogus methamphetamine standards.Hon Judith Collins: Why since he has been the Minister for around a year are there people still having to sleep in cars when there are 1400 empty State houses?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well we are investing $4 billion in building 6400 extra State houses. We stopped the mass sell-off of State houses. We've actually funded and built nearly 2400 emergency housing places around this country and rolled out Housing First to half a dozen new centres. It took nine years of neglect to allow the housing crisis to spin out of control; after nine months I think we've done pretty well. [Applause]SPEAKER: Order! Can I just remind people in the gallery that you've got to stay out of it.Hon Judith Collins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I don't believe that the Minister addressed the question which is: why when he's been the Minister for almost a year there are still 1400 empty State houses and people having to sleep in cars rather than those State houses? We got a long diatribe.SPEAKER: Well I think that the answer certainly addressed and probably came close to answering the question.Hon Judith Collins: Why are there 1400 empty State houses when he says that there were empty State houses under National and he has stated previously they should not have been empty and why is it OK for them to be empty now?Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Well not only do we have a lot to catch up on after nine years of neglect but we have reduced the number of vacant State houses from one in 20 under that Government to one in 50 in nine months.