At yesterday’s Social Justice forum at St Andrews on the Terrace, from the head nodding I discerned a consensus in favour of State tenants being permitted to buy their own homes (National’s policy). That included guarded favour from the other party representatives ( the Labour candidate was in favour only if those sold were replaced, which is National’s policy).
One of the delegates explained his enthusiasm by favourably contrasting the "feel’ of Porirua streets, with the feel of Manukau. He thought that Porirua’s advantage was probably a much longer average tenure, allowing a genuine sense of community to emerge.
It would be interesting to know from the Housing Corporation whether Porirua is distinguished in that way, and whether other sorry indicators (vandalism, rent default etc) are significantly lower in porirua.
That focus on long staying residents reminded me of my recent attendance at the AGM of the Wellington Housing Trust. The Trust’s Annual Report was ilustrated with a page from from the original Trust Deed. The Trust had updated their deed during the year.
It looked familiar. I realised I was recognising my own drafting from 25 years ago, when I was the initial honorary solicitor to the Wellington Housing Trust. Twenty five years is reasonably long term
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Tenure might be a factor. A cousin of mine working as a police Sergeant in Porirua put the same thing down to a reasonably evenly balance between the various cultural/ethnic groups making up the population. His contention was that as no one group dominated, every had to get along.