State housing is government-funded housing that is owned by us. People and families who live in state housing pay income-related rents - which is 25% of their income, so their rent is decided by policy rather than the market.  Throughout history, both here and overseas, public housing has been an important way that governments provide decent housing for people.

There are two main forms of public housing in Aotearoa – state housing through Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand), and council housing owned by local councils (largely built as pensioner housing but not always). 

The term public housing, however, has been used incorrectly by successive governments to describe both state housing and community housing (NGO, not-for-profit housing) where an Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS) is applied. 

IRRS is funding given by the Government to both Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers (CHPs) to top up the 25% of income tenants pay. 

Local councils have not been given access to IRRS, so many have created community housing providers to manage the housing but still retain the land. Housing where the land and the home is not owned by the public cannot be considered public housing. 

‘Social Housing’ was a term popularised by the Key-English National government when they created a “market” of providers through extending the IRRS to NGO and investor housing providers, who could register as Community Housing Provider (CHPs). It was a core part of their plan to privatise and sell off state housing.  

Many CHPs stepped up when the Key-English National government sold off state housing. Some are local organisations deeply embedded in their community, some are hapū, iwi and Māori providers creating homes for whānau, some are charities and faith-based organisations. But some are for-profit private investors and large-scale international providers. 

State abandonment of housing and the use of private investors and charities to fund and deliver housing has been experimented on in Australia and the UK, some of the warnings include:

• The selling of stock when government subsidies end.

• Rents increasing to market rate.

• Less accountability, as people cannot challenge decisions through voting.

• More room for discrimination with some faith-based and privatised housing providers discriminating against LGBTQI+ and other communities.

Instead, the government should fund the building of state housing at a scale able to house everyone. This should exist in a Tiriti-based housing system where hapū and iwi have rangatiratanga over their lands and are resourced in their housing aspirations. Community and other non-market housing have a role to play, but not as a replacement for state housing.