I met a homeless person today. Yes, really.
She is in her late 40s, with grown-up children (who do not live with her).
She split with her partner a few years ago and has probably about a 10% house deposit saved from the sale of their jointly owned house.
She runs her own business, but I am guessing that her income is not huge.
She hopes to be able to buy a house before too long, although I suspect that her income is insufficient to support a mortgage. In the meantime, she is looking for a place to rent. And therein lies the problem.
She is clean, tidily dressed, has her own car and you would never guess that she was homeless by looking at her. If I was a landlord, I would be more than happy to consider her as a respectable tenant.
Like a lot of ‘mature’ adults though, she is not keen on flat-sharing, and recently had a bad experience doing exactly that.
She sleeps on friend’s couches, or in their spare rooms, knowing full well that they don’t want her there. Sometimes, she sleeps in her car.
She tells me that there are literally thousands of people like her, who are not picked up by the statistics or the government departments because she has an income and does not actually sleep on the street.
There was a time when single people could find affordable accommodation where they could live alone in our beautiful country, but now that is getting harder and harder.
She admits she will probably end up having to move to a different part of the country, but her business, and only source of income, is here.
She would be a fine tenant, I am sure, but the problem is, she has a dog.
He is a nice, friendly, well-tempered dog, but he is a dog nonetheless.
Then I read, on a local Community Facebook page in a different part of the country, of a woman whose current tenancy is ending and the local rental agents are not interested in dealing with her. She can’t understand it. She has kept her current property in good order, paid her rent on time… but has 5 cats. That just might be the problem.
I really feel for these people, but there is nothing to be done. In spite of how hard the government is trying to change things into the tenant’s favour, in the end, landlords do have the final say. And if landlords do not want their investment properties damaged by pets, that is their right.
This is, of course, all part of the downward spiral for renters that has been caused by this government’s anti-landlord policies. A few years ago, tenants with pets found it much easier to rent a house, but in those days, landlords could not always afford to be quite so choosy about their tenants. Often, they would have to allow pets even if they didn’t really want to, otherwise their property might be empty for some time. Boy, how things have changed.
I have a huge amount of sympathy for the lady with the dog, but I know there is not much she can do. She will keep looking, of course, and with luck, she will eventually find something, but it is tough, and there is no sign that things will get better any time soon.
I blame the government entirely for the unacceptable levels of homelessness in this country. First, they promised to build 100,000 houses… and failed miserably. Then they decided to introduce a whole raft of tenant-friendly policies that scared landlords out of the market. Now they are trying to build more state houses, but with the waiting list currently over 14,000, they are getting absolutely nowhere.
If this is the government that has brought kindness back, then I must revisit the dictionary as to the meaning of the word. I think Jacinda thinks the word ‘kindness’ translates to ‘giving lots of people a hug’. Things have never been harder or crueller for those who have to rent a house. Sadly, many of them probably voted for Jacinda last time. Let’s hope that they see the error of their ways next year.