May 14th 2018
A Tale of Two Cities
Palmerston North has a large number of students who choose to study in the city,they share flats and they all contribute to the rental costs of their accommodation.This is not the case with the pensioners who rent their accommodation from the City Council,many of whom live alone.The Palmerston North City Councillors intend to increase their rents to market rents at present they pay a fair rent considering their low incomes.
Rumour has it that their are 12 councillors who are very much in favour of pushing ahead with the market rent increases and that 4 are against these large increases in their rental costs.There is a sizable gulf of opinion between the city councillors and pensioner tenants,so much for the caring city that the council tries to portray to the wider community.
It is vital that there is affordable accommodation for this sector of our city,these are people who don' have a voice or choice in their accommodation needs.The City Council appears to have become complacent on the issue of charging market for those who can least afford to absorb these draconian increases.
The Palmerston North City Council has to show leadership and a certain amount of empathy towards its low income tenants,not penalize them. The City Council has a good name as being fair and decent landlord,it will be a blot on its good name if they move to introduce markets rents, this ideological policy has to stop in the interests of the wider decent community that represents fairness for pensioner rents.
