Labour would remove ‘arbitrary’ emergency housing target, not raise state-house rents
Tuesday, 30 June 2026
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says his party would remove “arbitrary” reduction targets for emergency housing and not go ahead with an upcoming change that would raise state house rents to pay for a higher accommodation supplement for private renters.
The party would also take rough sleeping out of the Government’s controversial move on policy, arguing it criminalised homelessness.
Hipkins called the changes made to state house rents “morally bankrupt” and “cruel,” and said Labour would not be increasing rents for state home tenants tenants.
“The Accommodation Supplement was created to help people with housing costs, but too often increases simply disappear into rising rents while taxpayers pick up the bill.”
“Labour won't fuel that cycle. We won't increase state house rents, and we won't increase payments to private landlords through a bigger Accommodation Supplement.”
It comes after revelations by TVNZ's Q&A on Sunday that the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had set staff a target to cut the number of households in emergency housing by 75%.
Hipkins accused Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka of setting the target himself.
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“He ultimately told MSD that they had to meet the target. He can't wash his hands of the responsibility for how they're doing that.”
Potaka has denied any involvement in the targets, saying the matter was the operational responsibility of MSD chief executive Debbie Power and he would not be instructing any change as a result.
Hipkins said while Labour wanted fewer people in emergency housing, what it would not do was set an “arbitrary” target without matching it with proper support to make sure people actually have a roof over their head.
He argued move-on orders criminalised homelessness, saying Labour would look to reverse the particular part of the move-on order legislation.
The Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill, if passed, would fine rough sleepers if the person does not follow police instruction to move on.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stated on Monday that he was unaware Auckland had no emergency night shelters, leaving the city without immediate options for rough sleepers if police enact move-on orders.
Hipkins said Labour would be setting out its own policy to respond to homelessness in “due course”.
Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said there was a total package of housing policy to come, including for Kainga Ora, homelessness, transitional housing - noting the Government had scaled back funding to youth transitional housing - affordable rentals and progressive home ownership.
He said it was “preposterous“ for the Government to say it was not criminalising homelessness when the bill clearly fined the act of rough sleeping.
“Don't put it in the bill. What do they think, people are thick? They can see what they're proposing here, and it's not what they are saying publicly.
“Their rationale is that they want to have a tool available to the police to deal with antisocial behaviour. So, make the bill about antisocial behaviour.
“Don't include a provision that would allow you to fine them $2000 and for goodness’ sake, don't allow children as young as 14 to be included.”
He said with the Government scrapping the census, the only accurate measure of data around homelessness was front-line providers, who were saying homelessness was “the worst they’ve ever seen”.
“They link it to the Government's deliberate decision to block people in genuine need getting into emergency housing.”
Labour committed last week to increasing a Crown underwrite for an agency focused on funding more community homes.
“We believe will lead to a significant increase in housing, because it will significantly reduce the costs of borrowing for that sector.”
Housing Minister Chris Bishop said Labour would have to explain to renters why they would be paying more in rent as a result.
“The accommodation supplement changes are a useful bit of extra support for people who are struggling in the private rental market.”
“Ultimately what we're doing is making social housing fairer and engaging in a pretty long process to improve the system to make it fairer for taxpayers and also target support for those who need it most.”
Bishop’s social housing overhaul will introduce higher rents from April 2027 as part of this year’s Budget, by raising the minimum Income-Related Rent (IRR) contribution from 25% to 30% of a social housing tenant’s income.
The change will see around 84,000 households pay an extra $31 per week and is expected to save $387.5 million.
The savings will be re-invested into higher Accommodation Supplement (AS) rates - lifting them by between $10 and $30 per week.