PHOTO: Housing Minister Megan Woods has defended the party’s housing programme RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The Labour Party promised to reduce homelessness, boost state housing stock and build thousands of homes during its first term.
But with a record high waitlist for social housing and the creation of just under 600 of its promised 100,000 KiwiBuild houses … how far has it got with some of its major policies?
DCM, an organisation that helps homeless people into housing, is tucked away on a side street behind Wellington’s Courtenay Place.
Jackie, a mother of two adult children, is here for peer support, after a couple of hard years living in cars, garages and on couches.
“I was trying my very hardest to maintain being a mum, working full time, being a wife and a daughter. But when you’re living rough, it makes things very, very hard.”
The scars of that time remain.
“I was ashamed. I lied to my kids about us living in a car and a garage. I lied to them for over a year. I told them ‘mum and dad are doing fine’ because we were still working, still pretending to be the perfect family.”
After living in a garage in Northland, she returned to Wellington for a fresh start and to be close to her two children. But she struggled to find a house.
“We just had no luck getting a rental property.
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