What’s up with UP (Universal Public) housing? And why do we need it?
Tags: Housing, Aotearoa, New Zealand

From the 100% housing series: Ten things we should know about the housing crisis

100% Housing crew member and housing researcher Vanessa Cole got the lowdown on something called Universal Public Housing.

Currently, in Aotearoa New Zealand, public housing is not universal. That is, it’s not for everyone.

The government provides it only for those in the “most need” who need to prove they cannot access any other housing options.

Even within this restrictive criteria, there is a huge waiting list for people and whānau needing homes. We know that the need for housing stretches far beyond the waitlist and that many people are struggling to pay for their private rentals but would not be eligible for public housing.

Universal public housing is a model of housing where we can make different kinds of government and council rental housing options available to anyone who wants one no matter what their income is. It would need to involve a massive build and buy programme of public housing so that the current waitlist would be housed before opening up applications to everyone else.

Our healthcare and education system, while not perfect, are universally available to everyone. We would not accept someone being turned away from hospital, or an education.

So why do we accept people being turned away for housing?

Meme of Oprah Winfrey screaming to the audience “you get a state housing, you get a state house … everybody gets a state house”

What would it be like if we all had access to public housing?

Public housing is good for everyone because it is genuinely affordable housing where rents are decided by policy, not by the market.

Public housing makes surrounding housing and communities more affordable. The more public housing we have, and the more people housed in it, the less profitable the housing market becomes.

The idea of making public housing universal is gaining traction around the world. We’re all fed up with solutions being sold to us by the private market that reproduce the problems caused by the private market.* * *

Treating our homes, an essential requirement needed to live, as a commodity is pretty f*cked up. And imagine what else we could do with our income if we weren’t giving it all to landlords and banks?

The idea around providing public housing for anyone and everyone is not new. Cities like Vienna, where around 60% of the population live in public housing rentals, have been doing it for ages.

This helps to calm the rest of the housing market, making Vienna one of the most affordable cities in the world. Check out this view:

Looking down on the top floor and swimming pool on one of the social housing towers of Wohnpark Alt Erlaa in Vienna. It has pools, saunas, tennis courts, playgrounds and trees growing on the building. The tower’s slogan is “Living like the rich.”

If we look back to our own history in Aotearoa New Zealand, when the government first built state housing on a mass scale in the 1930s, it was not just for those on low incomes but those on middle incomes. It was the desired option for families.

It was never perfect though, as state houses were built on confiscated land, and in its beginning excluded Māori and single women.

Meme of Drake dancing, with the first image of Drake using a rejecting hand gesture and next to it Jacinda Ardern bringing a pot plant to the opening of the first Kiwibuild house in 2018. The second image of Drake is pointing in an affirming way and next to it the image of Michael Joseph Savage bringing in furniture to the first State House in 1937.

The first Labour government built 30,000 homes in just over 10 years. That’s just over 3000 a year. That’s way more than the current Labour government has promised and the population is now much bigger.

Over the last 40 years since neoliberalism came to our shores (that system that made everything sh*ttier) successive governments have eroded the idea of government-provided housing through letting the stock deteriorate, selling it off, and limiting its access.

While the current Labour government has stopped the selling of state houses, it has continued National’s policy of selling the land under state housing to private developers and only retaining ⅓ for rebuilding the state housing stock. This is driving up rents in communities and pushing people out (gentrification).

They are also not building enough new houses to address the urgent need of people on the waitlist which is nearly at 20,000 households. Let alone the many people living in expensive and substandard private rentals that could benefit from having a state home but are ineligible.

What would it look like if the government built or purchased an abundance of public homes and opened up the criteria of access to everyone?

➡️ We could have truly affordable housing

1 in 4 households spends more than 40% of their income on housing costs. Public housing tenants pay Income Related Rents at 25% of their income. We need to set the rental for public housing at an affordable rate that is not at the whims of a ‘housing market’.

The more public homes we have which are beautiful, secure, accessible and truly affordable, the fewer people have to rely on the private rental market. This could force landlords to disinvest from housing as a form of investment, making our housing system more affordable for all.

➡️ Security

While homeownership is seen as the only form of investment security these days, what if it wasn’t? Public housing could create security for people no matter what crisis (global pandemic or otherwise) hits us next.

Also, the more people eligible for public housing, the harder it is for governments to sell it because we’ll have more collective power to prevent it when they try.

➡️ Combat gentrification

Gentrification is a violent process where investors and developers move into a low-income area, buy up the property, drive up rents and displace people. An abundance of people in public housing can keep the land values of an area at affordable levels. This means that people are not pushed out of their communities because of rising rents.

➡️ Warm and environmentally sustainable housing

The construction industry accounts for a lot of emissions because it’s based on financial profit rather than sustainability. Low-income households are struggling to pay their power and water bills. The government could be a leader in providing warm, zero carbon public rental housing for many people to help combat the climate and poverty crisis.

➡️ Pay for itself

The more people in public housing, the more shared resources for the government to build and maintain the collective housing stock of publicly owned houses. Wouldn’t you rather put your rent towards many being housed then in the pocket of an individual or corporate landlord? I know I would.

Modern medium-density housing with comfortable outside living areas.

How do we ensure equity in universal public housing?

Universal public housing does not mean that the housing will look the same. Any UP housing has to reflect the different needs and desires of the communities in which they are built.

A universal public housing programme (Kāwanatanga sphere housing) must address colonisation, involve LAND BACK!, and the creation of financial support for tino rangatiratanga housing — for the creation of marae, hapū and iwi papakāinga and housing solutions created for Māori, by Māori.

Any universal public housing programme must address the economic, social and racial injustices that processes like gentrification has had on communities from Ponsonby to Glen Innes and beyond. It must be created with the people and for the people and communities where it is built.

Public housing should be built alongside public infrastructure and free social services — public transport networks, food forests, free and renewable power and water, childhood care centres.

Taking over from the market, UP Housing will lead the way, to ensure we have fully accessible homes for our disability and elderly whānau and friends. We can meet different housing needs for different communities, and live multi-generationally. Larger whānau should be able to live together without it being detrimental to their well-being.

*** When it comes to housing, the private market (or real estate market) is what we call ‘the buying and selling of housing and land by individuals, investors, developers and banks for the purpose of making more money from its sale (or renting/leasing out) than was spent on its initial purchase (aka profit and wealth creation $$$$$)’. Tbh though, many of us don’t really understand what a ‘market’ is (apart from the ones we get our fruit and veggies from) because we don’t have access to it and never will.

This blog post was inspired by all my friends currently in public housing; and all my friends in private rentals who dream of secure housing.

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