20,000 state houses turned down

Kirsty Johnston at Stuff reports:

More than 20,000 offers of state housing were turned down by “in need” candidates on waiting lists in the past year.

Advocates say the figures show the state house stock is undesirable and in poor repair, but the Government says they raise questions about whether some people are applying without real need.

The figures, provided by Housing New Zealand, show 55,116 offers of housing were made to 31,838 individual applicants in the year to March.

Of those, 20,541 were declined, by 14,182 applicants.

So half the applicants declined. That is way more than I expected it to be.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley said most people who came to Housing NZ were genuinely in need of a home, and a lot of the declines were genuine and understandable.

“We want to match them as much as possible with houses that are suitable for their families,” he said. “But if they decline housing three times it raises the question about whether their need is significant.

The question I have is how many applicants have turned down three or more houses?