Messy politics postpone vote on rent freeze for Wellington City Council housing tenants

Thursday, 2 December 2021

Access to the income-related rental subsidy (IRRS) would mean council housing tenants pay no more than 25 per cent of their income on rent - an amount that would be hundreds of dollars cheaper for some.

Wellington City Council has “kicked the can down the road” for its rent-burdened tenants, postponing a decision on a rent freeze until February.

Those low-income tenants have been pushing the Government to give them an income-related rental subsidy (IRRS), and say they don’t have money enough for food after paying exorbitant rents.

And while the council is also lobbying the Government to access the subsidy, councillors met on Thursday morning to discuss a series of interim measures, outlined in a notice of motion, led by Labour councillor Jill Day. Those measures included freezing rents and expanding a council-funded rental subsidy to ensure tenants paid no more than 35 per cent of their income on rent.

But there was confusion among councillors about late-night amendments to the notice, and a majority of them voted against putting the motion on the table. Then, in the ensuing two-hour squabble, they accused each other of using tenants as a “political football” and called the council’s own fracturious process “gross and confusing”.

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Council housing tenants Debbie Port and Rosalina Ngakopu lead the charge at a rally, calling on the Government to extend income-related rents to tenants in council housing.

Hidden beneath the name-calling was overwhelming support for interim rent relief, but disagreement over how to fund it.

Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons – who had seconded the notice of motion – was disappointed in her colleagues over the lack of consensus. “It’s an astonishing decision not to provide urgent relief to our tenants,” she said.

Councillor Tamatha Paul called for unity, rather than scaremongering

Councillor Iona Pannett, however, wanted to amend the notice and said she was disappointed by the council’s own process. “I had a large number of amendments, but there was no room to change anything.”

Those amendments proposed the council fund rent relief through rates rather than cash reserves. That would be a fundamental change: council housing has never been funded through rates, but is in a perilous financial state, forecast to become insolvent by 2023.

“We know that we don’t have much money left – to go and take money from [cash reserves] only to bring us to the crisis sooner is not responsible,” Pannett said. There was “majority support” on the council for funding rent relief through rates, she said.

The infighting will be disappointing to tenants, who submitted in favour of a rates-funded rent freeze at the meeting. Debbie Port and Rosalina Ngakopu – both spokespeople for the tenants-led campaign IRRS 4 ALL – said the move would have been an important symbolic gesture towards efforts to access the IRRS.

“It will support tenants, and show the Government that the council is doing its part,” Ngakopu said. Port said rates funding needn’t mean a rates increase, as the council could instead draw the funds from other rates-funded areas.

David Cook, who isn’t a tenant himself but submitted alongside the tenant movement, said ratepayers would support low-income tenants. “I’m a rates payer, and I support doing this.”

Councillor Tamatha Paul called for unity, rather than scaremongering. “I think we can all agree that we want our tenants to have a rent freeze next year, we want them to have access to a [council-funded rental subsidy],” Paul said. “Let’s stop slinging mud at each other, and come together.”

Paul reassured tenants that councillors would vote in favour of a rent freeze at the next meeting in February: “You will get all of these things, I promise you.”

Temporary relief, however, was not enough, Paul said. Ultimately, the Government needed to do “the bare minimum and provide $13.2 million a year” to fund the income-related rental subsidy.

Access to the subsidy would ensure tenants paid affordable rents by setting them at 25 per cent of income, while the Government topped up the rest. The subsidy was available to tenants with Kāinga Ora, or new tenants with community housing providers (CHPs) – but not tenants in council housing.

Wellington City Council’s 3500 tenants instead paid 70 per cent of market rents, with the rest discounted by the council. It is estimated that 1400 of those tenants pay at least 35 per cent of their income towards rent. A solo mother, in one instance, was paying 86 per cent of her income on rent.

“I know some people are worried this [the notice of motion] takes away from the income-related rent movement,” Day said. “I’ve always been clear that this is an interim step.”

Earlier this week, Labour MP Paul Eagle said the Government would report back to tenants “before Christmas” about access to the subsidy.