Habitable Housing must provide for adequate space and protection from cold, damp, heat, rain, wind and other threats to health, structural hazards and disease. The Healthy Homes Standards, defined in the Residential Tenancies Act, and HomeFit and Homestar, developed by the New Zealand Green Building Council, elaborate what the habitable ‘decency’ principle means, subject to two qualifications. First, these codes should be revisited by Te Tiriti partners to ensure they conform to Te Tiriti. Second, the codes are a non-exhaustive elaboration of the right to a decent home in Aotearoa New Zealand. Affordable Housing costs should not be at a level that compromise the satisfaction of other reasonable needs. Tenants should be protected by appropriate means against unreasonable rent levels and increases. Accessible A decent home must be accessible to everyone. This is not happening in Aotearoa today. The housing crisis is not confined to disadvantaged groups. A very large number of people who are not historically disadvantaged do not have access to a decent home. However, disadvantaged groups are disproportionately affected by today’s crisis. For example, the rates of home ownership in relation to Pacific peoples, Māori and New Zealand Europeans are 19%, 28% and 57%, respectively. Some groups often suffer from overlapping forms of disadvantage e.g. disabled Māori and Pacific women. Some of the disadvantaged groups that are finding it especially hard to have access to a decent home are: a) those living in poverty, including the homeless i.e. ‘couch-surfers’, people living in carports, garages, cars, lean-tos, sleepouts, makeshift housing, temporary accommodation, and on the street; b) tangata whenua; c) Pacific people and other ethnic minorities; d) disabled people; e) children and young people; f) women; g) rainbow communities; h) older people. 17