Recognising recent efforts made to address the housing crisis Many of the human rights issues our Inquiry has identified are the responsibility of successive governments that have made a range of decisions that have contributed to or exacerbated our housing system’s failures. The current Government inherited a crisis that has been decades in the making and is now exacerbated by complicating factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and response, serious building industry supply issues, and a challenging global economic environment. Some of these factors have driven increased hardship and poverty here in Aotearoa. We acknowledge that the current Government has made very significant efforts over the past five years to deliver a more equitable housing system in Aotearoa. These efforts include, for example, a $3.8 billion housing acceleration fund, legislative changes to improve conditions for renters including the introduction of Healthy Homes Standards, the MAIHI Ka Ora Māori housing strategy and implementation plan, and a major public housing building programme resulting in a net increase of over 12,000 public homes.8 Alongside dedicated, hardworking government officials, many other incredible people are working across Aotearoa to address our housing issues: builders developing new homes, iwi and hapū establishing kāinga on their whenua, housing and social service providers offering life-saving support services, and non-government organisations, advocates, and community organisations campaigning for change. All of this is difficult and important work. We must not cede any ground on the advances that have been made in recent years. We need a human rights approach embedded explicitly into government housing policy and responses to our housing and human rights crisis. The first steps are already in place, with the Government’s recent Policy Statement on Housing and Urban Development recognising the right to a decent home and the government’s role in making it happen.9 Alongside this work sits MAIHI Ka Ora – the National Māori Housing Strategy, which resets the Māori housing system with a new strategic direction, giving expression to the articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi and a “by Māori, for Māori” approach.10 Together, these two vital documents offer a vision for our housing future. We commend the Government’s recent work to publish implementation plans for both the Government Policy Statement on Housing and Urban Development and MAIHI Ka Ora, to launch system-level indicators that track progress towards the long-term goals set out by these documents and implementation plans, and to put in place system-level, place-based, and bespoke governance.11 These are all important and welcome additions to our housing system. Chapter 2 of this report suggests how policy makers can take the next steps. 1. Introduction 11