HamiltonÔÇÖs emergency housing network.

[Lilith7]

The hateful term 'feral' is used more & more often to denigrate all poor people. It isn't helpful to label people as being 'other,' but fixing the problem isn't something which can be done overnight.
Its unlikely to be fun & games for those in this situation & the old game of blaming the poor for being poor just doesn't wash anymore. Poverty is created; in NZ its been created by both Labour & National as a means of enriching the few at the expense of many - to then blame those suffering under the system is short-sighted but it helps vent feelings.

There are houses being built (quite a few here, as it happens) but even so, what's taken decades to create is likely to take years & possibly decades to fix. And the situation wasn't helped by the sale of state housing some years ago.

What needs to happen imo is for both main parties to get off their bums, put their pettiness aside & work together for once, making housing a priority here - build more state houses, housing to rent, (now being done) & affordable housing.


Long term I think we could do worse than to emulate  those Nordic countries which have high taxes, covering education, health etc. etc. as far as possible. They also have the happiest people so it seems a mix of capitalism & socialism works very well.

What would national and ACT campaign on, if they didn't have "others" to demonise, and scare the smug middle classes with?

They do seem to rely on that a lot, don't they. That & 'get tough on crime', which they surely must be aware often springs from poverty but are apparently happy to ignore.