Mana leader Hone Harawira

A few months ago Tariana Turia launched her social housing policy in Kaitaia, where Ricky Houghton is trying to build a community for people struggling to get a home to live in, using some of the houses taken from Glen Innes after people had been evicted and their homes removed, in the face of major protests and mass arrests by GI residents and supporters.

When I saw those houses I got a bit sad – for those who’d been thrown out so government could sell the land to private developers, for the families who’d been pushed out, for the generations who’d been raised in those homes and the next generations who would never have the pleasure, and for the destruction of one of the great communities of post-war Auckland. And I was even sad for the houses themselves because although officials said they were no longer fit to live in, Housing NZ still gave the new owners money to refurbish them.

I was raised in a house like those they’re taking away in Glen Innes and our home saw 5 generations raised there – just like those in GI. So I know how hard it is to see people get shunted out of houses they’ve been calling home for the last 60 years.

And I know too that for every 100 houses that HNZ gets rid of in Glen Innes, 40% of the replacements will go to private developers that low income families can’t afford to get into, 30% will go to Social Housing Providers without funding for ongoing maintenance, and only 30% of those replacement units will go back to HNZ who are making it harder for poor people to get into.

Now … in a world where jobs are plentiful, wages are good, everyone has a home and poverty is non-existent, you can expect the state to reduce its support for those in need. But that world does not exist in Aotearoa right now and is unlikely to exist anytime soon. Unemployment is high, wages are low, working conditions are poor, homelessness is at record levels and poverty is rampant.

Government should actually be refurbishing its current housing stock and building 10,000 new state houses every year, for at least the next 5 years to help address the critical shortage of healthy homes for low-income families – not kicking people out. And that’s why I support the fight for those families to keep those houses in GI.

But I know that in spite of all our protests (and my heartfelt thanks to those who’ve put their freedom on the line time and time again to try to save those houses) Housing NZ is still going to demolish a lot of those empty houses – they’ve already started.

And that is something I just can’t sit back and watch happen. I can’t feel happy about a good home being demolished. I’d hate to see that happen. I’d want to save the house even if it meant taking it somewhere else.

Yeah, I get that National is a pack of arseholes for what they’re doing. And yes, I know that we should take a stand, and we have. And yes it would be great if all social housing providers stood together and said “We will not take any of the houses you are going to demolish, because we think you should be refurbishing them for low income families”. But does anyone really believe that National is going to say “OK then, we’ll change our policy. We won’t demolish them – we’ll do them up and let the current tenants stay in them” Of course not. If government can’t offload them, they will demolish them.

I hate watching government kick people out of their homes in Glen Innes, and I will stand by those who want to fight to stay.

But where there are houses standing empty, I will support people like Ricky Houghton, who I know genuinely want to relocate, refurbish and reuse those houses for whanau in desperate need of a home in the far north, and I wish those houses safe passage on their journey north.

HONE HARAWIRA

Friday 20 March 2015

PS      My views are based on what I know about government, what I know from GI, and what I know about Ricky Houghton and what he’s doing in Kaitaia. Ricky is not a developer. He’s a good man with a big heart, a person I have sometimes called a fool for putting his own home up as collateral to help other people save their own. Ricky walks his talk. Not always the way we would, but in a way that is genuine and honest.