A financial incentive may be offered to Tongans and others on Auckland’s State Housing waiting list to relocate to regional areas of New Zealand, the Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett has said this month.

Statistics show that 4,619 people are on the waiting list (over 2,000 of them urgent) and there are not enough homes available in Auckland.

Ms Bennett told the New Zealand Herald the government needed to look at other areas of New Zealand that have employment opportunities and secure housing, and relocating people on the waiting list was another way to tackle the housing crisis.

"We've really got to shift some of the thinking with those that are eligible for state assistance for housing," Ms Bennett told the Herald.

Only people volunteering to relocate would be affected and people whose children were settled into schools would not be affected. However, people wanting to stay in Auckland would be waiting longer for a home.

Ms Bennett said Pacific Island tenants would be prime candidates for the move citing large Tongan and Samoan communities in the regional towns of Ashburton and Oamaru as examples.

Under the proposed policy, applicants will be told of vacancies in the provinces and asked if they have family in other regions and whether they would consider joining them.

Criticism

However, Jenny Salesa, MP for Manukau East, said in a statement, that Ms Bennett was targeting Pacific people in South Auckland.

“It’s tough to send families half way across New Zealand without proper support. What are the Government’s plans to support the move to these areas, besides a little cash? Will appropriate social and support services be offered to ease these families into new communities, away from Auckland’s Pacific health, training and employment services, for example?”

“Targeting Pacific people and, possibly setting them up to be scapegoats for the waiting-list issue if they can’t move out of Auckland, is not the answer to Auckland’s housing crisis,” said Ms Salesa.

“Building more, warm, dry, safe, affordable homes for people to live in is the answer.”

Ms Bennett will lodge the proposal to Cabinet in the next few months.