Takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ People’s Experiences of Homelessness and Sex Work in Aotearoa New Zealand

At present, there is limited research on the intersection of sex work, takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ communities, and experiences of homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper helps to bridge this gap, exploring how takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ people who had been failed by the welfare state engaged in sex work during periods of homelessness, and expressed agency in difficult circumstances. Specifically, we look at sex and sex work as a means to secure basic needs, and in the context of exploitative relationships; the emotional effects of sex work; and safety and policing. A stronger welfare state is needed to provide sufficient support for people to realise an adequate standard of living and treat them with dignity and respect

Individual and collective action for healthy rental housing in New Zealand: an historical and contemporary study

Substandard, insecure, and unaffordable housing affects health, contributing to the spread of infectious disease, susceptibility to respiratory illness, and to feelings of stress and anxiety. In New Zealand, people who rent are most likely to experience health problems related to housing. This study explores the connections between power and housing as social determinants of health by investigating the ability of New Zealand tenants to individually and collectively represent their interests in order to obtain healthy housing. The first part of the study is based on archival records and chronicles the five key phases of New Zealand tenant protest, during which tenants organised for affordable, secure and quality housing through political advocacy, tenant support services, and direct action. Tenant protest groups worked for rent controls in 1916 and 1920, against evictions during the Depression, for better quality and lower rents in the 1970s, against market rents for state housing in the 1990s, and against the redevelopment of state housing communities in the 2010s. Such groups helped individuals retain, gain or improve their housing, and contributed to policy and law change that helped people access healthy housing. However, tenant groups faced common challenges which meant that their actions were small scale and intermittent. In addition, state promotion of homeownership meant tenants were more likely to try to leave the rental sector rather than work towards its improvement. In discussing the results, I draw on Albert Hirschman’s exit-voice framework, Kemeny’s housing typologies, and the literature on collective action and social movements. The second part of the study consists of a survey of tenants and interviews with tenant advocates, which explore how tenants are able to represent their interests at an individual level, in relation to their landlord or the courts. Key issues facing tenants were insecurity, affordability, and poor quality housing. When tenants were able to represent their interests, often with the assistance of a tenant advocate, they could improve their housing. However, tenants often chose against representing their interests due to a lack of knowledge of or confidence in asserting their rights, as well as the high costs of doing so in terms of time and effort, the experience that reporting housing problems does not lead to their resolution, and the fear of risking their tenancy. In discussing the results, I draw on Hirschman’s exit-voice framework and Steven Lukes’ work on hidden dimensions of power. This thesis shows that tenant representation can support health by helping tenants access secure, affordable, and quality housing. But tenants are limited in their ability to represent themselves. The health disadvantages of tenants are inextricably linked to their power disadvantages. At an individual level, housing insecurity makes asserting their rights, as the legislation requires them to do, a risky endeavour, especially for low-income people. At the political level, group representation by tenants is limited by resource constraints and policies that make home-ownership the rational option for anyone who can afford to. The thesis makes the case that improving tenant health requires interventions that account for power disparities, and suggests that tenants are important allies in working towards healthier housing

Using Twitter to Explore (un)Healthy Housing: Learning from the #Characterbuildings Campaign in New Zealand

While increasingly used for research, Twitter remains largely untapped as a source of data about housing. We explore the growth of social media and use of Twitter in health and social research, and question why housing researchers have avoided using Twitter to explore housing issues to date. We use the #characterbuildings campaign, initiated by an online media platform in New Zealand in 2014 to illustrate that Twitter can provide insights into housing as a public health and social problem. We find that Twitter users share details of problems with past and present homes on this public platform, and that this readily available data can contribute to the case for improving building quality as a means of promoting public health. Moreover, the way people responded to the request to share details about their housing experiences provides insight into how New Zealanders conceive of housing problems

Setting Housing Standards to Improve Global Health

Developing World Health Organization international guidelines is a highly formal process. Yet the resulting guidelines, which Member States are encouraged, but not required to adopt, are a powerful way of developing rigorous policy and fostering implementation. Using the example of the housing and health guidelines, which are currently being finalised, this paper outlines the process for developing WHO guidelines. This includes: forming a Guidelines Review Group that represents all regions of the world, and ensures gender balance and technical expertise; identifying key health outcomes of interest; commissioning systematic reviews of the evidence; assessing the evidence; and formulating recommendations. The strength of each recommendation is assessed based on the quality of the evidence, along with consideration of issues such as equity, acceptability, and feasibility of the implementation of the recommendation. The proposed housing guidelines will address: cold and hot indoor temperatures, home injuries, household crowding, accessibility and access to active travel infrastructure

Towards an agreed quality standard for rental housing: field testing of a New Zealand housing WOF tool

Abstract Objective: Report on a field test of a rental housing warrant of fitness (WOF) to assess its practicality and utility for supporting improved quality of housing. Methods: Five councils each recruited at least 25 rental houses to undergo a WOF assessment. The assessment included housing features that, based on a combination of research and practicality, were considered to have an important impact on health, safety and energy efficiency. Assessors were interviewed to get their feedback on the process. Landlords representing 81% of the rental properties were interviewed on their attitudes to the WOF. Results: Of the sample of 144 houses, 94% failed at least one of 31 criteria. The most common reasons were: unsafe water temperature; no security stays; no smoke alarms; no fixed heating; and unsuitable handrails/balustrades. If items that required little (<NZ$100) or no financial cost were fixed, 44 extra houses (36%) would have passed. Conclusions: All WOF items could be checked in a variety of dwellings. The houses had numerous health and safety defects, many of which could be rectified relatively easily at a low cost. Implications: Implementing a rental housing WOF on a national scale has potential to improve the health and safety of tenants, as well as making energy efficiency gains. Future decisions on how to intervene to protect health and safety will be informed by data collected

What effect will the 2015 budget have on housing?

Less than a month after the 2015 Budget a coroner released &nbsp;a report on the tragic 2014 death of Emma-Lita Bourne, who had been living with her family in a state house in&nbsp;Ötara until unexpected complications of a respiratory infection led to her death in Starship Hospital. For the first time a coroner implicated poor housing as a cause, stating that ‘Whether the cold living conditions of the house became a contributing factor to the circumstances of Emma-Lita’s death cannot be excluded’ (Shortland, 2015, p.9). The house was cold and mouldy and the family had been unable to afford any heating

Service usage of a cohort of formerly homeless women in Aotearoa New Zealand

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore government service usage across the domains of health, justice, and social development and tax for a cohort of formerly homeless people in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing specifically on the experiences of women. The Integrated Data Infrastructure is used, which links our de-identified cohort data with administrative data from various Aotearoa New Zealand Government departments. Results: Of the cohort of 390, the majority (53.8%) were women. These women were more likely to be younger (57.1% were aged 25–44), indigenous Māori (78.6%), and have children (81.4%). These women had lower incomes, and higher rates of welfare benefit receipt, when compared to men in the cohort and a control group of women from the wider population. Conclusions: The cohort were primarily female, younger, Māori, and parents. They earned much less than their non-homeless counterparts, and relied heavily on government support. The neoliberalisation of the welfare state, high rates of women's poverty, and the gendered nature of parenthood means that women's homelessness is distinct from men's homelessness