A monument to renter activism

Recent years have seen a lot of discussion of the monuments in our streets and public spaces, asking us to consider, for example, whether it’s appropriate to have monuments to people like William Wakefield or Captain Hamilton, complicit in the violence of colonisation. Leonie Hayden has argued that, alongside taking down some of these monuments,…More

Let’s make good curtains mandatory in rental housing

Recently I interviewed a woman who’d had curtains installed in her rental property through a curtain bank, as arranged by one of the Healthy Housing Initiatives. She described how her life had changed. Previously her home was so cold that she and her kids had often gone directly to bed after dinner to keep warm…More

New paper: Being forced to leave your rental home can harm health

Elinor Chisholm, Sarah Bierre, Cheryl Davies, Philippa Howden-Chapman* [This is a repost from Public Health Expert Blog on 14 June 2022 – thank you to the editors. ] Eviction, or a forced move from rental housing, is a common experience for New Zealand renters, yet we know very little about its effects. In this blog…More

New paper: Promoting health through housing improvements, education and advocacy: Lessons from staff involved in Wellington’s Healthy Housing Initiative

We know that poor housing conditions result in ill health for many New Zealanders, and we know which interventions are required to ensure good quality housing that supports health. Healthy Housing Initiatives intervene to improve the homes of kids who are hospitalised for illnesses that could be related to poor housing conditions. Some colleagues and…More