As the Government battles to ramp up the supply of affordable housing, a critical report has raised questions about whether there is enough support for, and oversight of, community housing providers trying to put a roof over Kiwis' heads
New Zealand's community housing regulator has lacked sufficient oversight of the sector and failed to properly engage with providers, according to a newly-released report.
Concerns have also been raised about the Government's lack of funding and support for long-term social housing, with some advocates hopeful the findings will act as a catalyst for more meaningful change.
The Community Housing Regulatory Authority was set up in 2014 to register and regulate community housing providers and grow the social housing sector.
An independent assessment of the authority carried out by KPMG, completed in March 2020 but not released until last month, outlined an array of concerns with its resources and operations.
The report said the regulator’s focus on registering new providers, at the expense of its other core activities such as monitoring existing providers, “reduce[d] their overall effectiveness and potentially expose[d] them to risk”.
The majority of staff time (46 percent) was spent on processing applications for registration, with just 18 percent on the annual monitoring process and less than one percent on engaging with the sector.
In one case, there had been a four-month delay in reviewing documentation submitted by a provider as part of its annual review process - only for the regulator to eventually suspend, then remove the organisation from the community housing register after it identified “significant concerns” with its operation.
“Currently there is a bottleneck in which households receiving emergency and transitional housing support do not have anywhere to go at the end of the 12 weeks of emergency/transitional housing support.”
“While registering [providers] is undeniably a critical component of [the authority] delivering on its vision, arguably the most important activity in ensuring that housing is safe, secure and long-term, is to monitor the performance of current [providers],” the report said.
Community housing providers had indicated they wanted to have greater engagement with the authority, but that was not possible due to “a lack of capacity”, with annual on-site visits provided for in its business plan but rarely occurring in practice.
There were also problems with the current social landlord classifications, which meant some providers had to separate their non-housing services from their community housing operations.
Māori providers who provided wrap-around services but had to separate those out believed the current regulations were potentially in breach of te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The KPMG assessment also highlighted more wide-ranging concerns with the Government’s approach to community housing, saying a growing focus on providing emergency and transitional housing had reduced attention paid to the social housing sector.
“Currently there is a bottleneck in which households receiving emergency and transitional housing support do not have anywhere to go at the end of the 12 weeks of emergency/transitional housing support.”
A lack of sustained capital funding for community housing providers meant the sector had “few entities capable of delivering large-scale new social housing” compared to what was expected when the authority was set up.
Community Housing Aotearoa chief executive Scott Figenshow told Newsroom the sector body was happy the review had taken place and been released, but believed the Government needed to provide greater financial support to community housing providers.
The 2014 legislation that set up the regulator had been designed to provide a framework for government investment into the delivery of more affordable community housing, but only a small aspect had ever been “turned on” through regulations.
“I think it’s blurry because we haven’t fully enabled this regulatory framework - we’re only able to look at half of the issue.”
Figenshow said New Zealanders were slipping into homelessness due to the rent-related stresses they faced, a problem which could have been addressed if it had been “all hands to the pump” to build more affordable rentals.
While the last National government had been enthusiastic about community housing providers but failed to invest in it, the current administration was more than happy to invest but wanted to handle it all in-house.
“There’s growing discontent with the response to any question being Kāinga Ora [the Government’s public housing agency],” Figenshow said.
The sector needed investment settings that would endure regardless of which parties were in power, and he was optimistic the KPMG report could be a catalyst for meaningful change.
“These temporary band-aid solutions, at the expense of making the long-term investments that are needed, are a real problem.”
National Party housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis told Newsroom the report reflected the Government’s lack of support for community housing providers, as it instead pumped money into emergency accommodation.
“These temporary band-aid solutions, at the expense of making the long-term investments that are needed, are a real problem.”
The Government seemed to view the sector as “almost a necessary evil” rather than a crucial part of solving the country’s housing shortage, Willis said.
The community housing regulator was “over-run” and not getting the resources it needed, while the long delays in completing its monitoring functions were a concern.
“The Government should be using this entity not only to regulate the sector, but to enable it.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, which is responsible for the authority, said it was addressing the report’s priority recommendations to “reduce compliance burdens and provide a better experience of the regulatory process for both applicants and registered providers”.
The regulator had hired two additional full-time employees in the first half of 2020 to address workload pressures, and would work closely with the ministry’s Māori housing unit - Te Kāhui Kāinga Ora - to improve kaupapa Māori providers’ experience of the regulatory process.
The spokeswoman said the timing of the report’s release partly reflected the impact of Covid-19 on the ministry and the wider sector, but its findings were still relevant.
Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams said she was confident the ministry was responding appropriately to the report’s findings.
Williams said the community housing sector played an important role in delivering housing to those in need, and the Government would continue to work with the sector alongside its own efforts through Kāinga Ora.
