Wheelchair user worries she won't be able to bathe in emergency housing

Sunday, 3 October 2021

Dawn Eyles worries she won’t be able to bathe properly if she ends up in emergency housing, after being given 63 days’ notice at a private rental on the Kāpiti Coast.

A wheelchair user says she might not be able to bathe if she ends up in emergency housing, after being given 63 days’ notice at a private rental.

Dawn Eyles and her husband must leave their home of two years in Ōtaki, on the Kāpiti Coast, because the landlord decided to move in himself.

The bathroom at that property was modified into a wet room – an accessible shower with a large, open floor area – giving them “a false sense of security that we would be here for a long time”.

There are fewer than 10 rentals in her price range listed on the Kāpiti Coast, where Eyles’ support network is based. None were accessible, she said.

* Lack of accessible housing left woman showering at work for months

Dawn Eyles says the lack of accessible housing is nonsensical.

* Auckland Council agency to build apartments trialling new wheelchair access rules

“I need a wet room bathroom because I have to shower in a wheelchair with my husband’s help.

“I’ve heard about disabled people living in motels, and they’re not able to access the shower – so they’re basically there for months, not able to shower properly.”

That degrading scenario was beginning to feel inevitable, as suitable social housing was unlikely to become available before the notice period ended.

Dawn Eyles needs a wet room bathroom in order to bathe properly. “I’ve heard about disabled people living in motels, and they’re not able to access the shower.”

The private rental market was inaccessible in every way: overpriced, under supplied, and not designed for people of all abilities.

The collision of a severe housing shortage with ableist design norms made the search “like finding a needle in a haystack”, disability advocate Geoff Penrose said.

Ministry of Social Development acting regional commissioner Graham Allpress said the ministry was aware there were “some accessible emergency housing units” in the region, and would contact its providers to see if those units were available.

Dawn Eyles worries the adjustable electric bed and hoist she requires won’t fit into emergency housing, which is often cramped.

“We know it can be very stressful for people who are struggling to find a suitable home to meet their needs. We sympathise with Dawn’s situation regarding accessible housing.”

The ministry would assist Eyles in other ways, such as working with housing providers in the region to identify suitable long-term accommodation, while also providing financial support to help her with bond, rent in advance, and moving costs when a suitable house was found.

Gary Humffreys, who is Eyles’s husband and carer, says the two of them are “incredibly stressed” they won’t find accessible housing in time.

Just 2 per cent of New Zealand’s existing housing stock is accessible. This is despite 14 per cent of the population having a physical impairment that limited everyday activities, and one-in-six people requiring some adjustment to a property for it to be accessible.

Penrose, manager of universal design consultancy Lifemark, said those numbers were only set to increase as the population aged.

“Unfortunately, she [Eyles] may well be one of a number of people who will face this situation. The reality is we haven’t built enough accessible housing; we haven’t built it socially or privately.”

New Zealand’s building code was 20 years behind places such as the United Kingdom when it came to accessibility, Penrose said. Recent proposals to change the Building Act also “excluded accessibility” as a consideration.

That meant housing for disabled people had been at crisis levels long before the current affordability crisis, Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero said. “People can’t even buy their way out of this situation because of the lack of accessible housing.”

Modifications were often costly as universal design concepts hadn’t been applied when houses were built, meaning options such as internal reinforcing of walls – making it “easier to modify a house to be more accessible in future” – were not considered.

Tesoriero said disabled people sometimes moved cities and changed jobs to find liveable housing – or ended up in motel-based emergency housing without accessible showers. It was a question of basic human dignity, as housing was “a cornerstone human right”.

Eyles, whose income is a supported living payment, cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars for modifications to a non-accessible rental herself. Instead, she hoped to move into social housing where there was security of tenure. “You can’t get evicted,” she said.

Kāinga Ora general manager national services Nick Maling said the Crown agency wasn’t able to easily quantify the number of accessible public houses as central records hadn’t been kept until recently.

It was committed to “increasing the accessibility of public housing” with a policy that 15 per cent of social housing new builds would meet universal design standards in 2021/22.

But Tesoriero said that target was not good enough.

“We should be aiming for 100 per cent. The cost of retrofitting properties is more expensive than getting it right from the beginning.”

Kāpiti Coast District councillor Rob McCann said Eyles faced a years-long wait for social housing as the Government had “seriously underinvested in social housing” in the region, leading to shortages.

Kāpiti Coast had 12 per cent of the Wellington region’s population, but only 3 per cent of its overall social housing units..