OPINION: Its a classic parenting trope: marking your childs height on the wall, with a date next to it. You build a timeline of their growth: the quick spurts, the gradual change you dont notice until its time to put another line on the wall, and you say, Wow, look at how youve grown!
Ive heard about it. Seen it in movies. But I dont have a growth chart for myself or my son.
Off the top of my head, I make it twenty. Twenty houses Ive lived in during my 34 years.
Seven as a child, and that doesnt include the in-between times staying with friends and family, or living in a small camper while we waited for a house to become available. Three as an adult before I had a child, and ten since I had my son.
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Ten houses that my son has moved into and left without a mark. There was one house that we were allowed to mark a growth chart on the walls, my sons name and height joining the children of the owners, whod lived in the house before I rented it. Two marks, six months apart. Thats it. Then we had to leave.
I lived in a flat above the fish and chip shop in Aro Valley as a baby before my parents got divorced; in a suburban house in Upper Hutt where my younger brothers placenta is buried under a plum tree; in a townhouse in England (this one was my favourite); on a commune with solar power and a greenhouse bathroom in rural Motueka; and in a loosely converted shed with a longdrop and mice in the walls (my least favourite). And that was by the time I was 13.
Charlotte Fielding, pictured with her 11-year-old son and dog, doesnt hold out much hope for change from the Governments housing policy announcement.
It would take too long to list the places Ive lived since then. Im ashamed and sad about all the houses my son has lived in, all the neighbourhoods we havent belonged in.
The idea of living in the same house for your entire childhood seems like an unattainable dream to me. As does the idea of having some privacy and autonomy over the house I live in, and pay substantial amounts of money for.
For a long time, my income was too low to contemplate buying a house. Now I should be eligible for the First Home Loan scheme: I have a small deposit and a reasonable income.
However, Ive been told by two mortgage brokers that realistically Id need at least 10 per cent deposit, not the 5 per cent the scheme requires, and that even if I can raise enough for a mortgage, Im priced out of the local market.
Anecdotally I hear of dozens, even hundreds of people going to viewings for one house. I cant compete with that. Raising the price cap might help somewhat, but the dream of owning a house is as far away as it ever was. I have friends who are partnered and have two incomes, but they are struggling to get into their first home too.
The Governments housing policy announcement this morning is welcome but underwhelming. Im not a policy expert, but I cant see it making much difference in my life, or for people like me.
Neither the rental market nor the first home market are tilted in favour of those of us on single or low incomes, as much as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern kept saying thats what the Government is aiming for.
What more can be done? There are plenty of experts out there who are screaming for the Government to listen to their solutions to fix the housing crisis. For too long we have been lacking a Government bold enough to implement those solutions, and risk angering the landed gentry.
The strategies announced today dont go far enough in addressing the wildly escalating housing prices and the sheer inaccessibility for first-home buyers, and they wont improve the precarious nature of the rental system. The claim by investors that rent prices will be forced up is something renters like myself are resigned to as inevitable anyway.
Judith Collins says Jacinda Ardern has broken a promise by introducing a ‘capital gains tax’ after the Government announced a series of housing policy changes.
I hope that by the time my son is an adult these measures will have some meaningful results, but who knows how many houses well have lived in by then, or how long well spend in the bus were about to move into.
Since I wrote about our housebus in Stuff, my landlords have asked me to move it off the driveway, and stated they will be doing inspections more frequently. The power dynamics in the relationships between landlords and tenants are skewed, and make vulnerable people more vulnerable in ways that shouldnt be accepted in the way that it is.
The most promising parts of the announcement, as far as I can tell, are the measures encouraging new builds by property investors, and supporting councils with infrastructure.
More houses, please. Build em up, build em out, build em small.
Every New Zealander should be housed. No one should be sleeping in cars, or terrified and vulnerable in the way that so many are.