At least 277 children have been caught in the fallout of tougher social housing rules, which allow Kāinga Ora tenancies to be terminated for persistent rent arrears or disruptive behaviour — even when no alternative housing is lined up. The number of tenancy terminations has surged by 500% since the changes came into effect last July, leaving many children at risk of homelessness, Reported by Bridie Witton of Stuff.
Government documents released under the Official Information Act had warned this could happen, recommending an oversight system to track affected families. A year later, no such system exists. Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka defended the policy as a “firm but fair” approach, insisting tenancy terminations are never made lightly, particularly when children are involved.
The government has highlighted a decline in repeat warnings to social tenants as evidence the policy is working. But frontline housing advocates argue children are paying the price when parents fail to change their behaviour or engage with support services. While officials acknowledge the challenge of dealing with persistently disruptive tenants, they warn the unintended consequences risk pushing vulnerable families — and their children — into homelessness.
The lost children
From July 2024 to June this year, 277 children across 166 households ‒ an average of 1.67 children per family ‒ were affected by tenancy terminations, up from 147 children in 60 households (2.45 children per household) the year before.
About 40% of those homes were abandoned, compared to about two-thirds the year prior, signalling more were terminated for bad behaviour and rent debt. Hawkey said abandonment still pointed to families in significant distress.
Officials also noted the “disproportionate impact of ending tenancies” on Māori and Pacific people as another risk of the new approach, given they make up a high proportion of social housing clients.
‘Recycling’ through the system
Once it ends the tenancy, Kāinga Ora makes “every effort to connect the tenant with alternative housing options” - that’s where any monitoring ends. But officials at the time warned families booted out of state houses could “recycle through the system”.
Families could go back to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), which is the gatekeeper for social housing and assesses housing needs, to try to get back on the housing queue.
But officials warned there was a “risk that customers and their households could become homeless” because of the social housing shortage. They also raised the risk of people going into “substandard accommodation”.
While MSD collects information about the type of assistance people get, it would have to look into individual case files to know if a family was “recycling” through homelessness, to the housing register, and into a social home before having their tenancy terminated.
Kāinga Ora also confirmed a family whose tenancy was terminated remained eligible for a different home in the future.
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