Tirohanga Whānui | Overview
The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on this HUD Long-term Insights Briefing. We support the kaupapa to investigate the long-term impacts of infrastructure decisions in relation to housing.
Taunakitanga | Recommendations
Our main points are:
Affordability is not always the same as accessibility
It is important to ensure that the accessibility is not confused with affordability. Accessibility includes many things, of which affordability is one, but choices which might make a property more accessible (especially physical features such as flat entry showers and wider doorways) reduce the affordability of the project due to increased material costs. Affordability, while critical, cannot be the only metric of suitability that is assessed, and cannot be prioritised above accessibility when considering the needs of vulnerable populations.
Information from the previous LTIB regarding our aging population must be reflected in this
briefing
High-rise housing is not the preference for older people, nor is it helpful in supporting older people to remain in their own homes. Residential high-rise housing often comes with issues of access for non-residents and helping people out in emergency situations. When considering this alongside the previous LTIB about our ageing population, this brings up issues around the ability for people to age in place with support from community services, or to be assisted to be removed from these complexes by emergency services in the event of an accident or medical incident. This must be factored in when considering the suitability and design parameters of these buildings.
Housing impacts wellbeing in multiple domains
Housing is a significant social determinant of health (Rolfe, 2020). A diverse body of research indicates that there are a wide variety of social and health implications for those who live in high-rise buildings (Larcombe et al, 2019). Many of these issues can be improved through design principles, but others will require socially holistic approaches to address. Both of these aspects must be considered in this LTIB.
Tohutoro kua tohua | References
Larcombe, D., van Etten, E., Logan, A., Prescott, S. L., & Horwitz, P. (2019). High-rise apartments and urban mental health – historical and contemporary views. Challenges, 10(2), 34.
Doi: 10.3390/challe10020034
Rolfe, S., Garnham, L., Godwin, J., Anderson, I., Seaman, P., & Donaldson, C. (2020). Housing as a social determinant of health and wellbeing: developing an empirically informed realist theoretical framework. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1138. Doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09224-0
Ingoa whakapā | Contact Name
Nikki Hurst
Rachel Mackay