Wellington City Housing tenants Need Access to the Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS)

In April the IRRS 4 All campaign submitted its petition to Parliament requesting universal access to the IRRS for all public housing tenants. This is inclusive of all tenants living within Kāinga Ora homes, Community Housing Providers (CHPs) and Wellington City Council housing.  

The Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS) is a government subsidy that caps tenants rent at 25 per cent of their weekly household income, with the Government topping up the rest. While both Kāinga Ora residents and those within CHPs are eligible for the IRRS, Wellington City Council tenants do not receive this benefit and are required to pay 70 per cent of market rent.  

This places tenants within precarious situations in which they are not protected from the rapidly rising rents that are occurring across Wellington.   

This issue of IRRS is something that needs everybody’s attention and deserves to be taken seriously by the Government. By providing the IRRS to Council housing tenants, thousands of lives would be changed for the better to ensure that they can direct their income towards essentials such as nutritious food, warm clothing, and transport.  

With Kāinga Ora and CHP residents often located next door to Council housing complexes, in similar buildings, it begs to question why we are seeing a discrepancy in access to subsidies between the various tenants. 

Wellington City Councillor, Tamatha Paul, is a strong advocate for the IRRS and has been involved heavily in the campaign. Tamatha articulates the fact that housing is something that all people deserve regardless of income and that the responsibility is on the Council to be able to provide that to the people of Wellington.  

“We accommodate people that have the most need and are the most structurally marginalised,” explains Tamatha. “We provide that on the ethos that everyone deserves a home and especially those with the most need.” 

“We should provide them with housing because it’s the right thing to do, it’s the best thing to do and there’s so much social good that comes from making sure that they are housed.”  

Green Party MP, Ricardo Menéndez March, another strong advocate for the IRRS, also recognises that housing is a human right that all Wellington City Council tenants deserve to have access to.  

“What is exciting is that we’re now pushing the envelope on what people know that they deserve,” states Ricardo.  

“Now people are fighting for policy interventions that would ensure that they have the security of having a home and not worry about working multiple jobs to survive or needing hardship support from work and income just to make ends meet because the rent is too high.”  

Currently, the Council is undertaking consultation with tenants to hear their perspectives on council housing decisions. Throughout this they have stated that every tenant will be guaranteed security of tenure no matter what decision is made by the Government and the Council.  

Despite this, it is acknowledged that promises from the Council or Government don’t give tenants too much confidence.  

IRRS 4 All campaign organiser, Joanna Li, explains that for many tenants there is a high level of distrust operating between themselves and the Council.  

“When you’re in a precarious situation, you have to go through this every couple of years and it can be really traumatic which means there’s a really high level of distrust. Tenants have been royally screwed over in the past. You’re asking people to recount their trauma to you when they don’t know any dividends are going to pay off.” 

“It’s just not a nice feeling to know that as a council housing tenant your rights for your home are being kicked around for political lobby,” continues Joanna.    

It is therefore essential to remind ourselves when important kaupapa become part of a political game that these decisions have the potential to drastically change the quality of people’s lives. Enabling council housing tenants' access to the IRRS would directly improve the wellbeing of tenants by giving them the ability to redirect their funds, otherwise spent on rent, towards essential items.  

“That means they’ll be able to afford to go to the doctors, to the dentist, to buy fruit and vegetables, to keep their power on and to buy the kids school uniforms – all of those important things that they currently can’t afford because they’re paying 70% of market rent,” explains Tamatha.  

 We are experiencing a government that is prioritising private housing rather than providing essential access to public housing subsidies to the thousands of New Zealanders in need, who are currently sacrificing other expenses for rent, experiencing homelessness, or living within motels or backpackers in emergency housing.  

Rather than investing in social housing that would be accessible and affordable for those that need it most, we are continuing to invest in development’s that are out of reach and inaccessible for those most in need.  

We cannot continue to believe that simply building more houses will fix or alleviate the housing crisis. We are still seeing ordinary New Zealanders being unable to access homes while those who already have stakes in the private housing market are continuing to benefit. 

“We’ve just got to acknowledge that the private market is unfair and doesn’t cater to the people with the most needs,” states Tamatha. 

“That’s where public institutions should come in and provide the most critical and most important and necessary thing which is a home. Not merely accommodation in a motel or backpackers.” 

To meet growing concerns, the Council have proposed two options for the future of council housing and are seeking feedback through consultation with tenants and the Wellington public on their decision.  

These options include either funding city housing through increased rates and borrowing or establishing a Community Housing Provider (CHP) to operate social housing. The standard implementation of IRRS is not included as an option at all.  

A CHP is defined as a community housing provider that delivers public or affordable housing to eligible tenants. This would mean that the social housing service would be independent from the Council with the CHP being in-charge of governance and day-to-day management.  

Once established, new tenants would be eligible for the IRRS while current tenants would have security of tenure but will still be unable to access the subsidy.  

Essentially, a CHP enables the Council to shift responsibility onto independent groups and removes their accountability to social housing services and their tenants.  

This is a major issue as tenants will lose the ability to seek support from local councillors and will instead have to go through dispute processes with the management branch of their CHP removing the sense of democracy that is currently afforded.  

“You effectively elect your council which are the people in charge of running city council so at least there’s a level of democracy in that provision of housing,” explains Ricardo. 

“Whereas with CHPs, the people running CHPs are an unelected board – sometimes there may be a token representation from tenants but it’s not really led by people elected by the broader community.” 

“It just is adding another layer of bureaucracy into what doesn’t need another layer of bureaucracy,” adds Tamatha 

Currently, tenants have the ability to hold councillors directly accountable and demand action from them. With various layers of management occurring under a CHP, this same level of accountability would not be afforded to tenants.  

“What’s the worst that can happen if you’re on that CHP? A tenant complains to you? You’re not going to lose your job over that,” states Tamatha. 

“But you will if you’re a councillor and you don’t listen and you don’t look after your tenants - you’re out. That’s good, that’s what we want. We want representatives who are accountable to their communities and to tenants especially.” 

While the Council is currently deciding what direction to take their housing portfolio, the overarching decision of access to the IRRS rests with the Government. Minister of Housing, Megan Woods, holds decision-making authority and currently opposes the introduction of the IRRS to council tenants.  

With public housing being a high priority for the Minister, it is argued that providing access to the subsidy would jeopardise the Government’s ability to build new public housing. In terms of finances, it would cost the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development $13.2 million per year to give council tenants access to the IRRS.  

In the grand scheme of government spending, this is a drop in the bucket in terms of budgetary finances. It is therefore hard to believe that providing access to the subsidy would impede on the ability to construct new builds.  

“It's just not true. That’s just not how government finances work. It’s a political decision to choose to take money away from new public housing as opposed to other private housing projects,” emphasises Ricardo. 

Ricardo therefore argues this is an expression of political wealth considering Labour supported access to the IRRS when they were in Opposition to the National Party.  

There is no tangible reason for not providing the subsidy as access would potentially prevent many people entering emergency housing and it is argued that it would save the Government money overall.  

In Auckland, there’s been an increase of around 50 per cent of what motels charge the Government for emergency housing with some motels charging almost $2,000 a week for a room. This is costing the Government exuberant sums of money that could certainly be avoided. Rather than focusing on being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, energy could be directed towards more preventative measures that would meaningfully impact the lives of tenants.  

Although, this is much bigger issue than just cost.  

“Even when we talk about the cost that it would have, I think it’s important to also think about all the security that it will give to tenants, the wellbeing that it will give tenants,” states Ricardo.  

“It’s not just about saving money right, but it also will save people the stress, uncertainty and the upheaval that falling behind on your rent causes in your life.” 

What's Next for the IRRS 4 All? 

On 19 May the Budget will be announced and it will determine whether the Government has listened to the calls of tenants, advocates and the Council.    

Council’s consultation ends on 15 May with submissions closing on 18 May. To ensure that tenants’ concerns are being genuinely heard throughout this process, the IRRS 4 All campaign is working on important mahi to engage tenant communities.  

“Essentially, over the next couple of weeks the campaign will be doing a whole bunch of door-knocking around tenant communities to essentially support them regarding submitting to the consultation. Any sort of submission to consultation isn’t the easiest thing to do so we’re doing a lot of that,” explains Joanna.  

The campaign will engage tenants through door-knocking and support to navigate the submission forms. Through more direct forms of engagement, it is hopeful that more tenants will be able to have their voices heard through the consultation process.  

This is therefore an opportunity for all of us to involve ourselves in this important kaupapa. Access to the IRRS for council tenants is something that impacts every one of us as it contributes towards the broader fight of affordable rents for all.  

“My aspiration is that we also have a conversation about how public housing should actually be provided much more broadly and ideally groups like students should be eligible to be in public housing as opposed to really expensive rentals or student halls that are actually out of reach for low-income students,” articulates Ricardo. 

The broadening of eligibility for the subsidy would enable further strides to ensure that housing is viewed as a human right entitled to all – something that should already be a given.  

The expansion of the IRRS would push us along on that journey and would create immediate outcomes for tenants.  

It is essential that the urgency of this issue be recognised and afforded the respect it deserves. We are not simply discussing policy setting changes but the livelihoods of real people and their communities.  

The Government and Council owe it to tenants to support them in the best possible way and it is clear that this is through income related rent subsidies.  

“Tenants want affordable rents. They want equity with other public housing tenants. They want to stay where they are.” – Tamatha Paul