How this journey began.

It's important to begin my story by saying, I am not a Kāinga Ora (KO) tenant, I do not receive ANY government assistance. I am just a business owning taxpayer concerned by the waste of money and resources by the government and Kāinga Ora. Since marrying (and moving in} with my husband 7 years ago we have lived and continue to live in a private rental house.

In September 2019, we nearly lost my father (a Kāinga Ora tenant) and after a stay in the hospital he decided to stop the medications he had been taking for 10+ years because he felt they weren't improving his life and he wanted to let fate decide how long he had left. He has been under hospice care ever since with COPD.

In June 2020, after months of helping Mum with Dad's care I took over as the KO agent for my parents because as Mum put it "I've given up asking those bastards for anything, they don't listen".

I have learned a lot over the last year and two of the things that stick out the most are;

• Kāinga Ora are wasting thousands if not millions of dollars in taxpayers money because their contractor and subcontractors work is so far below the standard of what it should be they are having to revisit a job several times over before an issue is fixed properly.

• The vulnerability of KO tenants. They are vulnerable for a number a reasons. They feel there is a stigma that they should be grateful for a roof over their heads. They're vulnerable because they're afraid that if they speak out they will face retribution from Kāinga Ora or the Ministry of Social Development. They're vulnerable because they're unable to change their current living conditions due to the housing crisis and their current conditions are taking effect on their mental health. Basically they're stuck in a system that is not listening, a system that is breaking them further.

I am a staunch supporter of suicide awareness (I shaved off 16 years of hair growth back in 2014 for a suicide awareness charity) and what I see happening in the public housing sector are people who are adding to the horrendous suicide statistics our "Transparent and Transformational" government should already be ashamed of.

It blows my mind that Housing Minister Megan Woods would ask for compassion from private landlords when less than 20% of Kāinga Ora homes meets the governments own Healthy Homes Standards.

Where is the compassion for my father who had to have 40 degree showers (If that) for months on end, in a cold house with no fixed heating because Kāinga Ora thinks changing a thermostat fixes the hot water cylinder.

Where is the compassion for my father who after a year of first asking, is STILL waiting for the house he lives in to be brought up to Healthy Homes Standards because Kāinga Ora have told me they have a nationwide shortage of Heatpumps?

By comparison, both of the private rentals I've lived in for the past 7 years have had hot water cylinders that have broken down. In both cases my private landlords had new hot water cylinders installed on the same day, even when one broke down on a public holiday. Going back over the last 6 months KO have been able to tell me I have notified them 3 times of my parents faulty hot water cylinder.

How is it a private landlord can have a hot water cylinder replaced within a few hours but Kāinga Ora can't even do it in 24 hours (Kāinga Ora policy says because it's a health and safety the target response time is 4 hours) ?

If anyone is able to tell me the cost of having someone come out three times to "fix" the hot water cylinder that would be appreciated. I'm not sure what they did the first time, obviously not much given they had to come back two more times, but the second time they replaced the thermostat and the third time they finally replaced the whole cylinder. I wouldn't have thought this was best practice or the most cost effective way of getting to the point of replacing the cylinder given my experiences with my private landlords.

It is not my intention to make anyone who shares their story a victim of online bullying and retribution so will do my utmost to protect the privacy of anyone who chooses to share their story on this site. All I ask for is evidence to support your claims because you can't challenge the system based on rants and hearsay. It's important to note that the evidence you supply may not be uploaded to the website itself, but it is important that I do have it on hand should I be challenged on anything we post. We are currently working on a privacy policy around this and will update you as soon as this happens.

C.