Calls to step up over impending housing crisis

The Auckland Council and the Government are being told to step up if they want to avert the worst impacts of the city's impending housing crisis.

The Salvation Army has just released a discussion paper calling for an affordable housing agency and a housing plan to meet future needs.

Author Ian Johnson says an approach that recognises the multiple causes of the problem needs to be taken.

He says one of the underlying issues is inequality.

"That is that there's 10s of thousands of people now living in fairly awful housing conditions and we actually have to care about that or else it's just going to get worse."

"At present the Government really doesn't give a damn, or doesn't appear to. The council talks a lot about what it wishes for but doesn't actually allocate budgets."

Mr Johnson says there have been minimal gains from previous strategies like the Hobsonville project, which he describes as a farce.

Photo: NZ Herald