Tag Archives: land banking

Have you seen any State Homes sitting empty for any length of time?

June 9, 2019 Pam Vernon 7 Comments

Given our current homeless problem (43+K) & shortage of housing I’m seeing state homes boarded up, selling, sold etc. Penny Bright exposed the thousands of homes sold off in Tamaki & elsewhere to property developers. I’ve also heard of private folk buying them for a virtual song. Some folk who were evicted from these who are still homeless. Then there’s the P scam with many sales, the tale spun by the Nats that justified sell offs. Also the folk being placed in emergency motel accommodation. I’ve heard of folk leaving those with $85K debt because WINZ loaned the money for that accommodation. The only real beneficiaries of that scheme of course are the moteliers. How is it rocket science to simply have lent that $85 to the homeless person towards a new house? Even a tiny home, a container home or similar? If you have stories to tell about any of these scenarios, and would like to write them down (doesn’t have to be flash writing, just as you would speak) & send them to me with any relevant images even. Comment in comments below with your email, I won’t publish that but will contact you & delete the comment. Alternatively contact me via the contact page. One scenario that’s been told me since posting this is that of bulldozed state homes, very recently too. We are in the middle of a housing crisis & they are bulldozing perfectly good looking houses… a formerly state owned asset down the gurgler of course courtesy of Roger Douglas. So if you can report any thing like this, let me know how long ago they were bulldozed & the addresses where they were. We are told these sections will have new community houses built on them. Have you seen any being built? If you’ve noticed any houses/units etc also that have sat empty or boarded up for a while can you send me a pic with the following info if you have it:
1) current date & about how long it’s been empty

2) if you happen to know anything about the last tenants as in why they left (just left, were evicted, muscled out?)

3) is it for sale?

4) what town/area/city is it?

5) do you have any other info about it

5) if you’ve been housed in a motel, did you leave with debt to repay to WINZ?

I’d like to compile these & get a general picture of the extent of former HNZ homes being land banked. Needless to say your personal details would be kept confidential & unpublished. (People have already indicated they know of homes that have been empty for up to 18 months & more for no apparent reason).

Below are images of just a few of the Tamaki homes exposed by Penny Bright as land banked. Search ‘state housing’ in categories on these stories (left of page).

Homeless, Housing, News, NZ Government

NZ tops list of developed countries with most homeless – thanks National you do us proud

July 31, 2017 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Well congratulations Nat government/corporation, you’ve now put us on another dubious ‘honour’ list. Most homeless? Two homeless gentlemen recently dying in the winter cold even. Highest youth suicide. Highest child poverty. Well done John Key. Well done Bill English. You do us proud. What next are we going to excel in?

Who next can you simply kick to the curb with your boot that’s looking increasingly fascist these days? Twenty billion to weapons and war, and only one to housing? Whilst you land bank our state homes, 42K people sleep in tents, garages and cars. Your monetary priorities say it all. You’ve ushered in neo-liberalism on steroids. You’ve trashed not only the people but the environment as well. And what use is any economy with neither of those?

NZ tops list of developed countries with most homeless

Social Housing Minister Amy Adams is rejecting an American University survey that puts New Zealand at the top of a list of developed countries for homelessness.

Yale University has released a list of developed countries ranked on the number of homeless people per capita – which has New Zealand at the top, followed by the Czech Republic and Australia.

It found about 40,000 people are either living on the street, in emergency housing, or shelter considered sub-standard.

The report does note that getting an accurate picture of homeless is challenging, because many countries define homelessness in different ways.

Ms Adams said the findings should be treated with a high degree of caution, as the survey did not have consistent comparisons from country to country.

“They’re not comparing apples with apples and to suggest that is our number of homeless is quite wrong.”

agenda 21/30, HDC, Housing, News

The property developers who bought the Horowhenua community housing are getting “the deal of the century”

July 1, 2017 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

communityhousing1-2 — Horowhenua’s pensioner housing sold (Photo Credit: Horowhenua DC)

As we’ve learned since this article below was published by Stuff, the HDC has not exactly highlighted that this deal that is long term and promises wrap around services actually expires in 12 years. This was pointed out by Rob McCann, Labour candidate for Otaki. Add the implications of that to the real deal they are getting and one could be forgiven for thinking they might be land banking, just like the Tamaki Regeneration (aka gentrification) company have. Especially when little mention’s been made to the public on the extra piece of land that goes with the housing (for later provision of possibly even more community housing we’re told). I’ve added comments below from FB’s At the Nua regarding the true bargain the buyers have – plus a copy of the details sent to current tenants of the housing. If all of this is true, Compassion Horowhenua, the company formed one week prior to the sale, will quite likely be laughing all the way to the bank. Well they likely will be in twelve years at any rate. I believe the Horowhenua public may have been thoroughly shafted….

Horowhenua Council confirms contentious pensioner housing sale largely a done deal

Stuff.co.nz

The sale of Horowhenua’s council-owned pensioner housing may be all but a done deal, but it remains a bitter bone of contention in the district.

At a media briefing on Wednesday, the Horowhenua District Council officially announced the sale of its 115 pensioner housing units was expected to be finalised within the next five weeks.

“At the Nua” on FB comments:

” “But the council would not confirm the controversial $5.5 million price tag – well below the property portfolio’s rateable value of $7.19 million. It did, however, concede the sale price was less than that.”

Amongst many favourable aspects to the new owner in this deal…

Actually the sale price is $5.25m – the council are gifting $250k to the new owners for maintenance work on the units! Worse still the rateable value is actually over $9m ($7.19m is the “book value” after the units have been depreciated!). Then there’s a concession clearly given on the fact that someone estimates “a projected $4.3m cost to replace 50-60 per cent of the units in the next 25 years”… next 25 years… you’re kidding right? The transfer of the housing loan ($5.2m) means the new owners get the money free until 2029 – a free $5.2m loan for the next 12 years…”

Here is a link to the details given to tenants of the housing:

Horowhenua cty housing sale

Put it all into context & it’s part of the current trend. World wide, government/corporations are selling off our precious public assets to private corporations. It’s part of the UN plan for global governance under Agenda 21/30. By increments over the past three decades they’ve been whittling away our sovereignty and now of course there’s little left of either. And we’re all knee deep in debt. Key’s made open slather of it all and if the UN’s plan for global governance is a supposedly better system than what we had then we’d better all wake up fast because the evidence is not stacking up. Teen suicide, homelessness, poverty all on the rise while the wealthy are rolling in it. Can you not see something is really wrong with that picture?