No sense of responsibility
Stuff reports:
A south Auckland couple who ended up homeless after being evicted from their state house are now scrambling to find somewhere to live for a second time.
It takes a lot to be evicted from a state house. So why are we not told the reason they were evicted?
The couple previously lived in a state house in Māngere with their seven children for more than 20 years.
After an issue with their rent their tenancy was terminated and they had to leave the property in February 2016.
An issue with their rent? What does that mean? Did they refuse to pay? No wonder you get evicted if you don’t pay.
State houses are hugely subsidised. The maximum rent is 25% of their income so even if on a benefit, they can afford to pay the rent. In fact you can even have the rental paid direct from the benefit.
Tony told Stuff it’s “impossible” for the couple to find a private rental as the Tenancy Tribunal decision that ended their tenancy is still online.
“Landlords would look at our history and say they don’t want us.”
Yeah, it is known as consequences. There is no sense of responsibility for what happened. Just whining that it is our problem to fix, not his.
UPDATE: The article author comments:
You asked why the reader wasn’t told the reason the couple were evicted. To cut a long story short, I’d covered all of that in a previous story (which was linked to in the “Read More” section of this story), and as the eviction wasn’t the focus of this story I didn’t go into all of it again.
In short, their rent was increased to market rent, which they couldn’t afford, when it shouldn’t have been. MSD has investigated this and said the rent should have stayed as income-related rent. MSD says they tried to contact the couple about this problem, the couple say they never got the letters about this from MSD.
So no, they didn’t refuse to pay.
Regarding your final comment, about this being about consequences, you’re right. The consequence of MSD wrongly increasing their rent to market rent is they ended up homeless. And given that, they probably have a reason to whinge.