New Zealand Homes Now Affordable: Yeah, right

In the latest survey on the top issues for New Zealand, the cost of housing ranked third, following the economy and unemployment. It’s almost symbolic of the fucked-up state of New Zealand housing that it continues to be top of mind, despite there also being a deadly global pandemic and climate crisis.

But that makes a lot of sense when you reflect on the past few decades, real estate has been treated as an investment system, a way for the  rich to get richer. Rather than being about homes- people’s right to a safe, warm, stable place to live. Our housing system is being managed to make a profit for those who were able to buy property to begin with. And under this system, when it’s not profitable to house people, we let some live on the street. People are being locked out from their right to have somewhere to exist and belong. Our government accepts and tolerates the 40,726 households in New Zealand that don’t have a home. This investment system is creating a society divided by property, those who own it, and then everyone else. 

And then there’s climate change, like the stone in your shoe that makes the walk to university just that much harder. The consequences of the climate crisis, sea-level rise, flooding, and natural disasters, are causing damage and destruction to people’s homes. Waikato has the third-highest number of homes at risk of flood inundation and there are homes all along New Zealand’s coastline. We are losing homes, losing land, losing the places where we belong and hold on to. Most importantly, we are losing the environment. What can we return to if not te taiao?

It’s also important to acknowledge that all the houses built in New Zealand are built on Māori land. This isn’t the first time land and homes have been taken away in Aotearoa. Private property is central to the execution and defence of the economy Europeans imposed through colonisation. Individual ownership and alienation and mistreatment of whenua is a foreign concept to Māori. Our current property market is built on a history of violence, confiscation, and brutalism. 

So we find ourselves in a situation with a climate crisis that exacerbates pre-existing patterns of structural inequity in housing. The only people who can afford a house at the moment are those with rich parents and two high incomes, that’s not a reality for most of us. Then you add the danger posed to the homeless population in a climate intensified disaster, insurance becoming more expensive, and people who can’t afford to repair the damage caused to their homes due to the consequences of climate change. Yes, we’re all in the same sinking boat when it comes to climate change, but people are being tossed overboard by those just delaying their fate. 

As much as this is about housing, it’s also about having somewhere to belong. We should all have somewhere to do the very thing that human beings are designed for, to exist. The climate crisis is making it much harder, particularly for the people who were already locked out, to put roots down, to create whakapapa, and to live. From what I have learnt from the stories shared by my whānau and friends is that we, humans, forge life, it is our inescapable pursuit. We are made to seek out belonging, others, and home. The climate crisis is taking that away.

There’s no better place for you to take climate action than GoEco’s climate action hub. Follow our Instagram @climateactionhub or email me at hannah@envirocentre.org.nz to get involved.