Public housing waiting list hits new high of 14,500 households
The recently released figure - recorded at the end of November - has more than doubled from the roughly 6000 individuals or families on the list shortly after the 2017 election. National is blaming Labour's housing policies and says the government has meddled in the rental market instead of building houses. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, said the government had already delivered some 3300 public housing places, with another 2500 under construction. They were due to be completed by June, he said. The increase in demand was due in part to a culture change which meant people knew they would receive the help they need, he said. Faafoi added that Budget 2019 had included $197 million to strengthen and expand the Housing First programme. That funding would be able to support up to 2700 homeless whānau across New Zealand, he said. However, National's Associate Housing spokesperson Simon O'Connor said: "Labour was too quick to meddle in the rental market when it should have been focused on building houses.
"The reason we're in this mess today is because KiwiBuild tanked, Labour's new rental standards scared off landlords at the affordable end of the market, and its decision to end tenancy reviews increased pressure on social housing supply." If National were to get back into government at this year's election, it said it would "prioritise our most vulnerable Kiwis by throwing our weight behind community housing providers and introducing a target to reduce the time it takes MSD to house Priority-A clients on the social housing register". Faafoi said every New Zealander had a "right to a warm, dry, secure and safe place to live". "Homelessness is a complex and growing problem that will take a concerted and sustained effort by multiple agencies to ensure homelessness is both brief and non-recurring."
Demand by region
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Northland:524
Auckland:5326
Waikato:1494
Bay of Plenty:1120
East Coast:1405
Central:803
Taranaki:255
Wellington:1595
West Coast Tasman:510
Canterbury:1063
Southern:380
Other/unknown:21
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Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
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49.5% Yes
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48.6% No
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1.9% Other - I'll share below
Here's Thursday's thinker!
I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
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Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.
Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.
I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.
More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).
Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.
I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).
Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).
Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).
Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.
Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?
When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.
What do you think?
See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...
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