A former Harcourts property manager in South Auckland has blown the whistle on an emergency housing scheme where a group of landlords were paid up to $3000 a week by the taxpayer for "marginal to uninhabitable" private rentals. Mangere East Family Services social worker Alastair Russell said the houses MSD paid penthouse apartment rates for were often "marginal to uninhabitable". "Houses without stoves and ovens [and] houses that were essentially building sites with debris scattered both in and outside the house. "We put the [emergency housing] houses fully furnished, water, electricity, inclusive, just like how we run it on Airbnb." "Because the people who are in emergency housing don't just need a house they need a whole bunch of wraparound services as well.

Source: Stuff August 24, 2020 20:48 UTC