Settling In Palmerston North and Feilding - Human Rights Commission

Focus Group Suggestions• Assistance for low-income / newcomer families to help with first home buying / rentalsHousing Quality and Conditions• ‘Heating costs to be lowered, solar power, especially council housing/flats. Home heating standards need to be increased’• ‘Increased living standards in private sector’• ‘Prices are too high quality is poor. For example, insulation and ventilation deficiency, single glazing affects quality of living in the buildings.’• ‘Some houses are very poor insulated, resulting in very cold winter and mouldy wall and ceiling which will affect our health – need a system tomonitor rental houses in terms of rent and condition and quality. Houses in general have bad insulation and ventilation’• ‘Difficulty of finding clean and decent rental house. Even though they look clean in the photos, many rental agencies/owners seemed to neglectthe maintenance of their rental properties just because the tenants are usually students. A participant even found a rental property where ahole in a wall was covered only with a piece of cardboard.’• ‘Problem with smells permeating houses from some people from overseas cooking spicy food.’• ‘Many migrants housed in lower socio-economic areas experienced vandalism around their homes, and found this upsetting. One examplequoted was when “plugs” (sic) were damaged outside and four homes had no electricity for an evening.’Focus Group Suggestions• System for monitoring quality of rental housing – public and private• Improvements and lower-cost solutions for heating – eg solar heating in council housingSETTLING IN PALMERSTON NORTH AND FEILDINGTenants’ Rights• ‘A few attendees have had some unpleasant experience with house agents for renting houses. For example, a tenant had her bond reducedfrom $1,050 to $300 because of a small mark on the wall paper. This seems unreasonable. We suggest all agents who rent out propertyshould supply a clear notice of tenants’ rights and responsibilities in the language of the prospective tenant. There is also a need for informationregarding tenants’ disputes and where to go for help in the 1st language of the tenant.’• ‘Tenancy report that people from overseas can be exploited due to lack of knowledge.’Information• ‘How do we know what is a fair rent when we move here? Who do we get advice from? Motel owner was person to give me advice …’• ‘How do people know about things like school catchment areas? This is important when new arrivals rent a house.’• ‘Information about Accommodation’• ‘Support to find accommodation is good, provided by the institutions that they are associated with’• ‘One participant experienced communication difficulty as a prospective student who wanted to have more information about rental propertiesand other facilities. He tried to contact the International department of Massey University but didn’t get the response soon enough.’Student Accommodation• ‘Students who brought their families have to consider the distance between the rental properties with the schools for their children.’• ‘156 languages spoken’• ‘All overseas students want to live at Rakaia Place which is near the school, supermarket, mosque and bus route.’• ‘Most overseas students do not move from PNCC housing even after a number of years – should there be a review after 3 years?’• ‘Housing Advice report students from Pakistan need more permanent housing’Communities Housed Together• ‘Migrants and refugees want to be living close together although care has to be taken – so does not appear to be a ghetto of all the samenationality.’• ‘Numbers of refugees increasing, like living close by family members.’• ‘Some participants could not understand why they had typically been housed so far from other migrants of similar ethnicity. They couldunderstand the need to avoid the creation of “ghettoes” of migrant groups, but sometimes the effect of pepper-potting them around the city wasisolating, particularly for women looking after children at home.’• ‘At times there were problems with neighbours – one example was a neighbour who would put leaves onto their lawn, and language difficultiesmade it hard to negotiate on this problem.’• ‘One person described a walkway by his home which was muddy and covered with weeds. He did not feel confident to report his concern tothe council. Another cited local motorcyclists riding dangerously on the footpath, and did not know how to deal with such problems.’Feedback about What is Working Well• PNCC housing provides safe, affordable accommodation in a multicultural environment for many new residents.30