The latest public housing data for the Wellington region shows that 174 households were provided with a place to call home in the last quarter, and more public housing is being brought on board to address increasing demand.
The figures reflect households who were either on the Housing Register or the Transfer Register, which is comprised of those whose existing public housing no longer meets their needs.
“Our Government has been clear that the best way to tackle the housing crisis is to build more houses, and the best way to tackle homelessness is to build more public housing –that’s exactly what we are doing.
“Since coming to office, our Government has built 1,191 new state houses.
“In the last quarter, in the Wellington region we brought on an additional 113 public housing places, with 97 brought on by Housing New Zealand and a further 16 delivered by registered Community Housing Providers. In the same time period, we also brought on ten transitional housing places.
“Each new state house and community provided home means one less family living in unacceptable circumstances, such as cars, garages and under bridges.
“While progress is being made on building more homes, we know demand for housing continues to increase. The hidden homeless that we warned about at the beginning of last year are continuing to come forward with the Housing Register increasing in Wellington by 107 households.
“We need to build more public housing, and we remain committed to increasing supply by 6,400 new places in the next four years, 715 of which are expected to be in the Wellington region.
“We are on track to achieve this goal,” Phil Twyford said.
