A Queenstown contingent, including mayor Glyn Lewers, has today told a committee of MPs why Whakatipu’s accommodation supplement zoning is so hopelessly out of date and needs a complete rewrite in the face of the rental crisis.
Salvation Army community ministries director Andrew Wilson (pictured) fronts the group seeking to overhaul the scheme that shuts out hundreds of people living in the resort from their fair share of accommodation assistance, because boundaries have not been reviewed since 1992.
At that time, areas like Shotover Country were farmland and remain classified as ‘‘Area 4 rural’’, meaning a family there can access just $120 a week, compared to the $305 allowance for eligible families in ‘‘urban’’ areas like nearby Arthurs Point, Fernhill-Sunshine Bay, Queenstown, Frankton and Arrowtown.
This is despite Shotover Country today being an 800-plus lot residential subdivision, home to about 4000 people, complete with a primary school, two preschools and, on adjoining land, the Queenstown Country Club retirement village, the new Southern Cross Central Lakes Hospital, and a growing medical precinct.
For a single person, there is a $95 difference between the two areas, from $165 in Area 1 to $70 in Area 4.
Other areas the accommodation supplement classes as farmland included Lake Hayes Estate, Hanley’s Farm, Wānaka and all of Invercargill.
The group, which also includes Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust boss Julie Scott and Mana Tāhuna head Mike Rewi, will make oral submissions to a petition organised by Wilson and backed by council, as a last-ditch attempt to get the government to act on the
outdated inequity.
The petition was presented to Parliament by Southland MP Joseph Mooney in March.
Wilson travelled to Wellington to give his oral submission in person to the petitions committee — comprised of six MPs representing National, Labour, Greens and Act — while the mayor, Scott and Rewi Zoomed in to have their say.
Speaking to Mountain Scene this week, Wilson said he was looking forward to sitting face-to-face in a room with decision-makers to share the ‘‘human side to the data’’.
‘‘Queenstown … bears the brunt of the harm caused by the poor writing of this law, in so much as when people can’t afford to live here … they move away.
‘‘What that does to a community is it fractures it right down to the core … people not being able to make those long-term connections,
sense of place, or sense of belonging which makes the community disconnected.
‘‘The emphasis is on making sure that when the government comes to rewrite the law it’s written in a much more both user-friendly and adaptive way that’s not set in stone and you can update different areas and locations as they grow.’’
