Availability and affordability - Overcrowding
91.
Insecure housing exacerbates ill health, and is associated with poorer educational
outcomes for children, as they may have to shift schools frequently, have more
days off school, and lack an appropriate space in which to do homework.
Overcrowding is disproportionately spread across age, ethnic and socio-economic
lines. Data from the 2013 Census indicated that over half of New Zealand’s 72,124
crowded households (representing about 10 percent of the population) have two or
more children (at least one child aged between 5 and 14 years) living in them.115
Specific housing challenges also remain in the Canterbury region following the
earthquakes that occurred in 2010 and 2011.116
92.
The 2013 Census data also indicated that 38% of Pasifika people, 20% of Māori and
18% of Asian people live in crowded households, compared to 4% of Europeans.117
Furthermore, of those New Zealanders who live in crowded households,
approximately 35,000 (9%) live in households that do not use any form of heating
in their houses.118 The highest percentage (16%) is in the Counties Manukau DHB
region, where 14,103 people living in crowded households use no heating. This
region, home to many of New Zealand’s most economically deprived urban
communities, also experienced a 9% increase in overcrowding in the period between
the 2006 and 2013 Census surveys.119
Habitability - Housing quality
93.
The Government has taken some action to improve housing quality, which has led to
improvements in health outcomes. The Warm Up New Zealand home insulation
funding programmes has been found to correlate with reduced hospitalisation rates
for children in low income households.120 Furthermore, amendments to the
Residential Tenancies Act will require mandatory insulation standards for all social
housing and rental accommodation by 2019. However, despite these developments,
significant numbers of New Zealand homes are inadequately insulated. The Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) estimates that at least 600,000
houses still have no or inadequate ceiling or underfloor insulation, of which 300,000
are low income households.
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