Having a decent and stable home is the foundation for a good life. It builds connections between neighbours. It links us to our local schools and sports clubs. It helps us connect and contribute to our communities.
Over the past year, ActionStation’s Public Housing Futures campaign has turned its focus to state housing in response to the Government’s decision to cancel the construction of 212 Kāinga Ora developments across the country. As more people and whānau struggle to secure a roof over their heads, the Government is actively dismantling our state housing programme, knowing they have the resources and scale to build the homes we need.
We ran a poster campaign through street poster advertising company Phantom across the country in town and city centres near where the cancelled Kāinga Ora builds are. This brought people to our website to sign up to campaign locally around state housing.
We then ran five regional campaign calls across the country supporting people to build local campaigns around state housing. There are currently 13 groups around the country who are starting to build campaigns – Tai Tokerau, West Auckland, Waitematā Central Auckland, Eastern Bay of Plenty, Wellington Central, Porirua, Kāpiti Coast, the Hutt, Whakatū Nelson, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Ōtepoti Dunedin, Queenstown Lakes and Invercargill, with more to come.
Each local group has their own strategy centred around the goals of generating local support for state housing - to change the story we are telling about our homes, and putting pressure on local MPs to oppose the sell-off of state housing and land designated for more homes.
Local campaigns are growing their local petitions, which are the vehicle to having conversations with their communities, organising actions and backing events from their local communities to share information and build support.
The Public Housing Futures team is supporting these local groups through ongoing training and campaign support. This is feeding into a national strategy in the lead up to Election 2026.
However, while we work towards a future where everyone has a decent and stable home, this Government is still making decisions that directly impact on the lives of those who are unhoused which require a collective and coordinated response. In response to the Government’s proposal to legislate ‘Move On’ orders to force unhoused whānau from the centre city in Tāmaki Makaurau, we sent them an open letter signed by over 40 community organisations and local representatives.
In order to super-charge tenant power, we are also taking steps to build a tenants’ union, starting with a local branch in West Auckland. There is no doubt that tenants and their neighbours need to get organised if we want to successfully reduce the power that property investors have over our political system and the decisions made about housing. We will report on more tenant wins and successes in 2026.