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Housing Minister Chris Bishop is cracking the whip over the thousands of state houses that sit empty in New Zealand, demanding Kāinga Ora work with “utmost urgency” to fill them.
Bishop today released a letter he had penned yesterday to Kāinga Ora board chairman and former Labour minister Vui Mark Gosche after a response to an Official Information Act request seen by his office which showed 3906 public homes, 5 per cent of the country’s public housing stock, were vacant as of October 31.
More than 25,000 people were currently on the social housing waitlist.
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“I was shocked to discover how many hundreds of newly built Kāinga Ora homes are sitting vacant for months at a time when New Zealand is facing a housing crisis and is desperately short of social houses,” Bishop said in his letter.
“I wish to make clear my expectation that, with over 25,000 people on the social housing waitlist, social houses owned by Kāinga Ora are not to be left empty for a day longer than absolutely necessary.”