$16M Missing Rent Payments to Kāinga Ora as Cost of Living Hits Tenants
November 3, 2022
New Zealand’s cost of living crisis means more and more people need their services for everything from food parcels to financial advice.
“Seems to be increasing every week now,” Porirua Whānau Centre CEO Liz Kelly said. “These food parcels that we give enable them to be able to keep the power on because they don’t have to make that choice.”
In fact, the cost of living has spiralled so out of control that Newshub can reveal almost 10,000 social housing tenants can’t afford their subsidised rent.
“It tells me that they’re struggling,” Kelly said.
In just one year, the amount owed to Kāinga Ora in rent arrears has gone from just over $9 million to $16.3 million - a staggering 81 percent increase in debt.