Cross-Sector Partnership in New Zealand Local Government: A Case of Affordable Housing Policy for Older People in Auckland

Housing policy is usually seen as the domain of national governments, and in many countries local authorities have relinquished direct engagement in the promotion of adequate housing. High costs associated with related policies and programmes are often cited as justification for minimal involvement, leading to fewer community-level interventions on affordable formal housing. This article presents financial approaches for local government leaders and decision-makers to consider in furthering affordable access to adequate housing for their citizens. The article argues that when local governments engage on housing with innovation and financial pragmatism, the housing needs of the urban poor and vulnerable can be better served. KeywordsMunicipal finance, local government, affordable housing, fiscal policy, cities, capacity-building

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A Case for Universal State Housing in Aotearoa New Zealand

Counterfutures ◽

10.26686/cf.v9.6773 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 19-45

Author(s):

Vanessa Cole

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Housing Policy ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Housing Crisis ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

Aotearoa New Zealand

In contemporary debates about solutions to the housing crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand, state housing is side-lined. But there have been renewed calls internationally for expanding state provision of housing. Some of these calls have been to expand the criteria of access to state housing to make it more universal, ensuring everyone has a home and challenging housing as an investment. This article presents a case for universal state housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores nine main benefits that a universal state-housing policy could bring to Aotearoa New Zealand, including creating more affordable housing, towns, and cities, more secure housing, combating gentrification, displacement, and stigma, and making housing more democratic, environmentally sustainable, and accessible. This article is an act of imagining—the seeding of an idea to start conversations—not a blueprint for how things should be.

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Australian local governments and affordable housing: Challenges and possibilities

The Economic and Labour Relations Review ◽

10.1177/1035304619880135 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 14-33

Author(s):

Alan Morris ◽

Andrew Beer ◽

John Martin ◽

Sandy Horne ◽

Catherine Davis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Housing Policy ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Local Governments ◽

Home Ownership ◽

Housing Affordability ◽

Local Government Area ◽

Housing Crisis ◽

Nation Wide Survey ◽

Almost All

For an increasing proportion of Australian households, the Australian dream of home ownership is no longer an option. Neoliberal housing policy and the financialisation of housing has resulted in a housing affordability crisis. Historically, Australian housing policy has afforded only a limited role to local government. This article analyses the results of a nation-wide survey of Australian local governments’ perceptions of housing affordability in their local government area, the possibilities for their meaningful intervention, the challenges they face, the role of councillors and councils’ perceptions of what levels of government should take responsibility for housing. Almost all of the respondents from Sydney and Melbourne councils were clear that there is a housing affordability crisis in their local government area. We apply a framework analysing housing policy in the context of neoliberalism and the related financialisation of housing in order to analyse the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne. We conclude that in order to begin resolving the housing crisis in Australia’s two largest cities there has to be an increasing role for local government, a substantial increase in the building of social and affordable housing and a rollback of policies that encourage residential property speculation. JEL Codes: R31, R21

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Community governance

Policy Quarterly ◽

10.26686/pq.v12i4.4627 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Peter McKinlay

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Local Government ◽

Service Delivery ◽

Older People ◽

Social Service ◽

Community Governance ◽

England And Wales ◽

Social Service Delivery ◽

The Many

The theme of this article is current developments in community governance (see, for example, Rolfe, 2016), but it comes with a warning: this is an area where definitions are extremely difficult and it is easy to become distracted by semantics, rather than focused on the substance. Discussion is further complicated by the variety of practice, the many different approaches which can come under the umbrella of community governance, and the formal responsibilities of local government in different jurisdictions: local government in England and Wales has significant social service delivery responsibilities (albeit typically under fairly tight government requirements), but in both Australia and New Zealand local government’s actual involvement in social service delivery is relatively minimal, although Australian local government does have a role in care both of older people and of children, especially in the provision of childcare centres.

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