June 5th 2018
Just say''NO''to market rents for council tenants.
It was great to see that the Palmerston North City Council decided to say to no to market rents for their pensioner housing .It was rumoured that 12 councillors were in favour of the market rent increases.On the day the vote went the other way,with just 4 councillors voting for the increase.The gang of 4 were Karen Naylor,Susan Baty,Vaughan Dennision and Jim Jefferies the penny pinchers.They did not care and showed little or no empathy for tenants living on low incomes.
At the end of the day it was a fair result for the common good as well as common sense.The Manawatu Tenants Union along with many others who were active in writing submissions and spreading the word to highlighting the issue. I think the City Council thought that it was a done deal,but there was outrage when it was made public and was seen as another attempt to impose a council tax on those who could least afford it.
The gang of 4 all have strong connections to the National Party and their ideology of ''no government involvement in providing rental housing'' But there is no doubt that they will try again to impose market rents for council housing,their long term goal is to move out of providing public housing.
We will be vigilant on keeping a eye on them as housing is a basic human right and the benchmark by which a civilized community measures itself.
