It’s the peak of the flu season – and right now staff in New Zealand’s hospitals and medical clinics are run off their feet looking after thousands of children and their families.  Many of these children wouldn’t be sick if they lived in warm, dry homes.

Urgent action is needed to make sure poor families have decent housing.

Most poor families live in rental accommodation.  With the current housing shortage poor families have been pushed to the back of the queue for decent housing and end up with the worst properties. When they can find a place to live, it’s often cold, damp, mouldy and over-crowded.  They have few protections as tenants.  And the accommodation supplement which helps them pay for rent has not been adjusted for a long time and is not enough in many places.