Why is this not front page news?

Chris Bishop released:

Labour’s housing policy failures have led to a huge increase in the number of Kiwis living in their cars, National’s Housing Spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“Despite claiming they would fix New Zealand’s housing crisis, the number of people forced to live in cars under Labour has more than quadrupled to 480 in June 2022, from 108 in December 2017.

“While in Opposition in 2017, Jacinda Ardern tweeted that ‘kids living in cars and motels is not a sign of care’.

“Yet under her watch, there are now over 370 more people sleeping in their cars every night and 4100 kids are waking up each morning in motel rooms.

In 2017 I recall numerous stories about the relatively small number of people living in cars. Five years later and that number has quadrupled under Labour, yet it is somehow no longer newsworthy!’

UPDATE:

MSD has clarified that the numbers quoted are for people who were living in cars when they applied for public housing. Some of them will have been placed in emergency housing since they applied. To quote:

480 is the number of people on the Public Housing Register who had previously told us they were living in a car, when they first applied for public housing.

It is a cumulative figure as at at 30 June 2022.

They may have applied in the previous month, or they may have applied many years earlier.  

Similarly, the 108 figure is a cumulative figure as at 31 December 2017.

It’s also important to note the 480 figure is not a measure of who is currently living in a car.

When someone in urgent housing distress comes to us for help, we work with them to find somewhere to stay. We may provide an emergency housing special needs grant, or other assistance so they can avoid homelessness. While it can sometimes be challenging to identify suitable housing for people with complex needs, there is no wait list for emergency housing and people who need it are regularly housed the same day they ask us for help.

d