5. Question No. 5—HousingKATIE NIMON (National—Napier) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 5—Housing5. KATIE NIMON (National—Napier) to the Minister of Housing: What actions has he taken setting out his expectations for Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing): Oh well yesterday the Minister of Finance and I as shareholding Minister sent an interim letter of expectation to the board of Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities (KO) instructing them to end their Sustaining Tenancies Framework the policy of the last Government that enabled intimidation abuse and destruction in communities up and down this country. We have directed Kāinga Ora to make better use of tools in the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 including formal warning notices relocations and in severe and persistent cases terminating tenancies. KO records hundreds of serious incidents every month including alleged illegal activity harassment intimidation threatening behaviour and verbal abuse. Despite this only three people were evicted last year for bad behaviour. There is no incentive for tenants to improve their behaviour or to stop damaging their taxpayer-funded house unless they know there are consequences. We're bringing them back.Katie Nimon: What prompted the Government to make this change?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well we've all seen the stories of the kind of misery that the last Government's policy enabled which is why we have directed Kāinga Ora to stop it. This also fulfils a coalition commitment between the National and ACT parties. To name just one example we saw the elderly Whangārei couple subject to death threats from the patched Black Power Kāinga Ora tenants next door. They allegedly threatened to slit the 82-year-old man's throat and watch him bleed out. To give you another example we heard the heartbreaking story from a Te Awamutu homeowner who said a campaign of abuse from his Mongrel Mob Kāinga Ora neighbours cost him his marriage and left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He told the New Zealand Herald of a night where a meth-crazed man linked to a Kāinga Ora property next door smashed up his house at 3 a.m. and tried to break in. These sorts of activities and behaviours need to stop and under this Government they will.Katie Nimon: What did this interim letter of expectations say about rent arrears?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well the Government has laid out its expectation that Kāinga Ora stops letting tenants go into massive rent arrears as we've seen happen over the last few years. To give you the exact numbers in 2017 tenants' rent debt was $1 million; six years later it has ballooned to $21 million. At the moment there are more than 450 Kāinga Ora tenants who each owe more than $10000. That is a staggering amount of debt to let a State house tenant get into. It's not fair on taxpayers. It's not fair on the tenants themselves. We have instructed Kāinga Ora to be much more proactive about preventing this from happening in the first place.Katie Nimon: What else did the letter of expectation say?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: We've made it clear that we expect Kāinga Ora to move families into vacant homes much more quickly than they are currently doing. There are hundreds if not thousands of homes vacant at any given time and when the wait-list is over 25000 people that is not OK. We are also concerned about the loss of social licence for social housing in communities often because communities feel that social housing developments happen without engagement from Kāinga Ora. We have therefore instructed them to do more to genuinely engage with local communities about their development plans and activities above and beyond their existing legal requirements. We've sent this interim letter to make sure that they are focused on the right things right now and we intend as a Government to issue an updated letter of expectation later this year in response to the independent review led by Sir Bill English which is reporting to Ministers very soon.