Community Housing Aotearoa – Shifting the Housing Narrative

Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA), a peak body for the community housing sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, has a vision of 'all New Zealanders being well housed' as a basic human right. Convened through CHA, The Shift Aotearoa focuses on the human right to adequate housing and exploring ways to mitigate the wildfire impact of financialisation in the housing system. Those impacts include the price hikes we are seeing, limited investment in the habitability of existing stock, the wealth gap widening, and quickly increasing New Zealanders’ dependence on renting, and government support for the rental sector.

So, what does a home look like when we have implemented the right to housing? It’s a house that’s habitable, affordable, accessible, culturally adequate, and in a safe and strategically connected location. You have access to services, and you have security of tenure – whether you are renting or an owner or in some other tenure - protected in law.

Helping to build a system that delivers this for all requires tenacity and an ability to work in sometimes confusing and complexing conditions. It is a purposeful process designed to fundamentally modify the mechanisms and structures that cause the system to function in a particular way. In both obvious and inconspicuous ways, systems often work better for some groups in society than others, compounding the situation negatively for those who already face the biggest adversity.

“Systems change sits on a pretty fine line between ‘we want to be aspirational, and we want to look towards a really positive future’ and ‘we’ve still got to grapple with the really tough stuff that’s right in front of us’,” says Brennan Rigby, Manager System Shift, CHA.

Brennan found that as he tackled the tough stuff around housing, he often found levity in the conversations he was having with others. People were connecting through humour despite the difficult content, and so a seed was sown. By reframing the issue and promoting an understanding of what a human rights lens on housing looks like, the message that good, affordable homes give people hope, connection and stability could achieve the necessary cut-through. Where coverage is generally dominated by economics and fear-mongering, repackaging this introduced a more human – and more humorous – voice and didn’t put select perspectives on pedestals. Even though the solemnity of the issue is never in doubt, the narrative could change to engage a wider audience.

The result is the recently launched #right2housing Game Show, an attempt to take a fresh, lighter look at housing problems, while raising and exploring big issues. It brings together a diverse and expert panel to discuss solutions to a thorny topic in a humorous, engaging way. Another novel approach created by the team is #Gather, a brand-new board game, designed to vastly increase knowledge of the right to housing with players moving across the board collecting elements of the #right2housing as they go.

While using conversation, connection, originality and humour to reframe the narrative is one way of working on housing, there is no doubt that the challenges facing Aotearoa New Zealand are not to be taken lightly. In this context, Brennan wanted to draw attention to two different bodies of work that frame the right to housing as being entrenched in human rights.

Firstly, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission has produced Aratohu tika tangata ki te whai whare rawaka i Aotearoa | Guidelines on the right to a decent home in Aotearoa, providing local guidance on the implementation of this critical right here at home. CHA was part of this mahi and is committed to promoting and implementing the right to a decent home. A range of implementation tools come along with a human rights approach, which CHA continues to explore. They include constructive accountability, participatory policy development and access to justice.

“Imagine if every New Zealander had access to justice in relation to their right to adequate housing; if every family living in an uninhabitable home had a legal avenue to raise their concern and have it heard; if every homeless person or family had access to a formal legal forum in which they had standing to seek justice. The elements of the right to housing mean very little – even if introduced in legislation - if there is not also an increase in accountability, and access to justice for a breach of these rights,” says Brennan.

Secondly, Leilani Farha, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur (on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the right to non-discrimination in this context), visited Aotearoa New Zealand in February 2020. Her findings underscored that the housing crisis confronting the country is a human rights crisis that must be addressed urgently. There is a persistent lack of affordable housing, and consecutive Governments have failed to ensure that the housing market meets the needs of the entire population, particularly those who have low incomes. Her report provides a comprehensive way forward, or as Brennan puts it “a big, complex but clear template for fixing our house system’.

Aotearoa New Zealand needs to make a massive shift toward a housing system that works for all New Zealanders, every day. On the #right2housing Game Show, researcher Conal Smith discussed research which showed that one hundred percent of individuals from whom data was gathered, reported that when they moved into a social housing home, they experienced an increase in the quality and habitability of their housing. Not having enough social housing is a key characteristic of our financialised housing system, in which even government falls prey to the extraordinary expense of housing generated by financialisation.

CHA feels fortunate to have found a long-term partner in the Peter McKenzie Project (PMP) and appreciates the solidarity and learning opportunities being part of the PMP whānau has presented.

“When we started this journey with PMP around the part that housing places towards ensuring that all tamariki and whānau flourish, we thought that making the right to housing real was the long-term play that was needed, to permanently shift us toward our shared aims. Today, using the rights-based, Treaty-based way still seems a long way off – yet I do think we are seeing signs that point to the validity of the approach. It’s a long journey and are grateful that PMP is as committed as we are to the long road of achievement,” says Scott Figenshow, former Director at CHA.

Tackling the housing challenge is CHA’s contribution towards ending child poverty and enabling whānau wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand – the goal is reaching a point where all our people can say ‘this is a good place to live.'

You can learn more about CHA on their website: communityhousing.org.nz