Mum flees Tauranga rental squeeze only to face sleeping in her car in Wellington too
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
Mei Gilgen moved to Wellington after Tauranga's rental shortage saw her and her two children sleeping in the car - only to face the same prospect in her new city.
The mum-of-two arrived in the capital in September to live with her sister, but had to leave a few months later after the home became overcrowded.
Gilgen has been hunting for a flat since then, but with a competitive rental market, two young children in tow and her university studies about to start, she knows she's an unattractive tenant.
Gilgen first sought assistance at a walk-in at a Porirua Work and Income office.
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'They asked me if I had a car or a vehicle, I said yes, so they shrugged their shoulders and gave me that look like – 'well there you go – you can sleep in there'.'
A lack of rentals is heaping pressure on social housing providers, resulting in one mother-of-two claiming Work and Income staff suggested she sleep in her car.
On January 19, Gilgen was placed temporarily in a motel.
'I've been struggling for housing for about a year now. In Tauranga I lost my house due to the house getting sold, and from then onwards I was stuck living in my car up there, and just going from friends to friends.
'I try to make out like it was an adventure, I was trying to make the situation as good as possible for them [her children] but it was really hard.'
Gilgen said her children, Hayleigh, aged nine months and Jade, nearly two, were suffering from the constant upheaval.
'My youngest one has quite bad eczema, she's a really happy baby, but just not having that stability, not having that homely feeling is quite hard.'
The national social housing register hit 5844 in September, a 39 per cent increase from the same time in 2016, according to Ministry of Social Development (MSD) data.
MSD spokesman Scott Gallacher said a shortfall of housing in the private market was resulting in increased financial stress for many low and middle-income households and growing the demand for public housing.
In September, there were 950 people on the social housing register in Wellington, up from 638 in March.
The waitlists for social housing keeps going up, despite Gallacher saying the number of public housing places increasing.
Between March and September last year, places grew from 65,979 to 66,187.
'We know we need even more and our aim is to have 72,000 public housing places by June 2020,' Gallacher said.
Gallacher said he was concerned to hear of Gilgen's experience, and encouraged anyone considering sleeping in their car to contact MSD.
'We do not see sleeping in a car as a suitable accommodation option, and neither does Housing New Zealand.'
'It's important to note that people on the Social Housing Register are generally in some form of housing, with 94 per cent of applicants already receiving housing support from us.'
Over 9,000 special grants were paid for emergency accommodation during the September quarter last year – a figure expected to drop when the most recent quarterly data is released in a couple of weeks.
'We will continue to work with Ms Gilgen to help her find suitable, longer term accommodation,' Gallacher said.