Healthy homes — Canterbury and West Coast

A healthy home is important for the health and wellbeing of individuals, whānau and communities. There are groups of people in Aotearoa New Zealand who have worse health outcomes due to less control over the quality, type, affordability, and occupancy of their homes, especially:

• people with disabilites
• renters in private or social housing
• Māori and Pacific Peoples
• individuals or families on low incomes
• families with infants
• elderly people on fixed incomes
• solo parents
• people with complex health or mental health needs.

New Zealand is also experiencing a 'housing crisis' with some of the least affordable and poorest quality housing in the world. Our national building code is behind other comparable countries and there has been persistent under supply of the housing needed for our communities.

Heatmaps of housing outcomes — Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (external link)

NPHS — Canterbury and West Coast aim to improve health and wellbeing by supporting better housing outcomes in the following areas:

• ensuring equitable outcomes for renters in social and private housing
• increasing appropriate housing options for people with disabilities
• reducing harm to those with hoarding behaviours
• collaborating for solutions to address energy poverty
• supporting solutions for financial disadvantage
• coordinating the housing sector, so it is more responsive to needs.

NPHS kaimahi host a quarterly housing forum for Waitaha Canterbury, where anyone with any mahi or interest in learning more about housing and related services is welcome.

Data and research consistently show that renters in our motu live in the worst houses. Rental homes are more likely to be cold, damp, draughty, and unaffordable for the people living there. As these households spend more of their income on rent, they have less to spend on power bills, which adds to how unhealthy rentals can be.

Tenant advocates are professionals who work either one on one or with a systemic approach to support tenant rights that meet the needs of the renting population. In Ōtautahi Christchurch, we have a network of tenant advocates who meet regularly and work together.

There are also national groups working to protect tenants health and wellbeing. People living in social rental housing, owned and rented out by the Government or funded by the Government, have better health and wellbeing compared to people living in private rentals. This is because social housing is more likely of better quality, so warmer and drier, and because these are secure tenancies that will only end if residents start making too much money to qualify for this house.

The Healthy homes standards set the quality standards that private rentals must meet to keep rentals warm, dry, and healthy for tenants. It is much harder to enforce these standards on private rentals as ownership is so spread out around our population. This means that currently tenants need to stand up for their own rights to a healthy home and understand what the standards are.

Related links

Christchurch Tenants Advocacy Network members — Will need to add product number to document so we can upload to HealthEd and link to it there.

Healthy homes — Tenancy Services (external link)

Wellbeing in public housing vs. private rentals — Public Health Communication Centre Aotearoa (external link)

Finding a good rental property — Aratohu tenant advocacy (external link)

Tools — Life When Renting (external link)

Elderly people, tamariki, and people with low or fixed incomes often find themselves in poor quality housing that is hard to heat in the winter and keep cool in the summer. Such houses have little to no insulation, poor ventilation and moisture issues leading to mould, and are also draughty. This means that the residents need to deal with higher power bills and the additional impacts on their health.

Health New Zealand, other government agencies and partners need to invest in healthy housing that takes less energy to keep dry and at a healthy temperature. The Healthy Homes Initiative is an example of this kind of investment in New Zealand. It has saved millions of dollars a year in fewer hospitalisations, GP visits, and prescriptions for tamariki. Young kiwi are getting a fair go at the start of life, and whānau are seeing many other benefits because of this programme.

There are many community, government, and energy organisations in Canterbury collaborating to get more power into the hands of communities vulnerable to energy poverty and increasing costs. The Canterbury Energy Wellbeing Collective supports and runs programmes that help communities access affordable and sustainable power.

More and more households are being pushed into poverty with the increasing cost of living. Low-income households or those on fixed incomes can also be locked out of affordable housing that supports their health and wellbeing. So it is important for them to know who to talk to about financial support options including making the most of their budget.

Related links

Energy poverty — Public Health Communication Centre Aotearoa (external link)

Healthy Homes Initiative (external link)

Canterbury Energy Wellbeing Collective (external link)

Beneficiary Advisory Service (external link)

Money Talks (external link)

Disabled people can find it difficult to find a home that is suitable for them. New Zealand has a world-renowned accreditation system called LifeMark for designing and building accessible homes for people with disabilities. However, we do not have legislation that requires new builds to have any accessible functions. This persistent lack of accessible housing results in increased disadvantage for people with disabilities, and then worse health and wellbeing outcomes.

The National Public Health Service facilitates a local network of people who want to focus on increasing the stock and access to accessible housing for people with disabilities. This structural problem is complex, but there are some organisations attempting to address this gap in Canterbury.

Related links

Lifemark (external link)

Accessible Properties (external link)

Accessible Tiny Home Project seeks community feedback — St John of God Hauora Trust (external link)

ACC housing modifications guides and toolkits — Enable New Zealand (external link)

Accessibility at Kāinga Ora — Kāinga Ora (external link)

The National Public Health Service has a responsibility to contribute to reducing health risks caused by insanitary living conditions at a property to:

• occupants
• visitors
• those living close by.

This includes risks of:

• injury
• infection
• fire
• toxin spread
• respiratory issues.

Staff work alongside environmental health officers from city and district councils o help landlords and occupiers ensure homes are safe and healthy to live in.

Insanitary living conditions can be caused by:

• hoarding
• rotting food
• animal or human waste
• insect or vermin infestation such as fleas, cockroaches, flies, ants, rats and mice
• offensive odours
• poor house maintenance including plumbing, wiring, or structural issues
• issues with animals such as feeding of stray animals, or large numbers of animals.

Hoarding is a behaviour often linked to mental distress, but the experiences and circumstances are different for everyone. Hoarding can include accumulating objects while having difficulty getting rid of stuff, excessive clutter in living spaces which restricts use of the home, and significant distress or impairment of other social and physical functions. Sometimes it is a case of pathological hoarding or a matter of circumstance.

Efforts to address hoarding in New Zealand and internationally has shown a coordinated interagency approach to addressing hoarding is the best practice.

Support available to deal with hoarding behaviours in Canterbury — Will need to add product number to document so we can upload to HealthEd and link to it there.