(24-05-2025, 11:18 AM)Oh_hunnihunni Wrote: The changes they are making affect far more people than we think. For instance, the social housing subsidy is ending. That's the one that keeps my rent affordable. As a legacy tenant my rent will not be affected, but my landlords have to change policy in order to remain financially viable. So, they are changing the criteria for new tenants, by removing some of the restrictions. Competition for flats will increase, Winz will no longer be the referral body, it will be open to the general public. And rents will reflect that. So, we might get neighbours far better off than us, paying more, but homeless oldies will have fewer options. More competition. Can't blame the housing providers, they can't do it on hot air.
Imagine being in your late 70s and living in a car because you're divorced, or estranged from family, or have health issues, or whatever. It can happen to anyone, it happened to us. But we were lucky.
In a just & caring society that could never happen.
Most of us here are old enough to remember a time when no one was homeless, when no one needed to beg on the street, & while those times were far from perfect, it was broadly speaking, a more caring society.
What has been done to this country by successive govts makes me extremely angry; its hardly surprising that most of us now have little or no respect for politicians.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)