Build public housing in the Queenstown Lakes District

Public housing is a key way that the government can ensure everyone has a decent and stable home. It supports people to live in their communities, close to amenities and jobs. 

But for many towns and regions across the country, successive governments have not built state housing, which has forced people into expensive private rentals or into their cars. This is particularly true for tourist destinations like Wānaka and Queenstown where there is a lack of genuinely affordable rental accommodation for the very workers that keep these towns moving.

Wānaka and Queenstown have an underlying homelessness issue that is swept under the carpet as they are perceived as higher socioeconomic areas. This means that homelessness is often invisible and ignored, and there is a lack of housing support systems.

I am an example of this. I moved to Wānaka from New Plymouth to work in hospitality after the engineering consulting work I was doing dried up. I went from having stable and secure housing to being forced to reside in my car because there was a deep shortage of affordable accommodation. At the age of 60, I spent some nights sleeping in sub-zero temperatures. I was not alone. There were many others sleeping outside - some in cars and others in toilet blocks to stay warm. When requesting emergency accommodation from Work and Income, I was advised that there was no emergency housing available in Wānaka - because there was no need. Yet in 2021, a homeless man froze to death adjacent to the Upper Clutha Rugby Club in our community.[1]

This is the same story in Queenstown, where people remain on the housing waitlist for long periods, sleeping in cars and on couches because there is a lack of state and community housing available.[2] People on work visas are hit particularly hard by the housing crisis, with stories of landlords renting out housing in terrible conditions and people sleeping in their cars[3]. 

At the time of the 2023 Census, Queenstown-Lakes District had 672 people who were severely housing deprived.[4] Yet, the Queenstown-Lakes District only has 15 state homes and 56 community housing provider homes.[5] This makes up just 0.3% of all dwellings. 

On top of this, many of the existing rental stock are rented out as short-term rentals such as Airbnb. At Census 2023, 27% of all dwellings were unoccupied compared to 10% nationally[6].

We are calling on decision makers to ensure that everyone in the Queenstown Lakes District has a decent and stable home by building public housing in our community - so workers have secure and genuinely affordable housing.