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 under the covers. With curtains the heater kept the lounge warm. She and her family stayed up, did homework, watched TV, hung out, played games: the normal things people want to do at home.
Her experience captures something that can sometimes be lost among the data we have, about how huge numbers of hospitalisations result partly from cold, damp and hazardous housing and how improving housing improves health: that being warm at home simply means that people are that much more free: free to get out of bed, free to spend time together, free to do the things they like to do.
Curtains changed the life of this family, and many others. Good quality, properly fitted curtains reduce heat loss by up to 45%. They make a huge difference to people’s comfort, their power bills and their health. Getting more good curtains in New Zealand’s housing is one of the many things we can do to make homes warmer. One step towards this would be for the government to amend the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations, so that best-practice curtains are made part of minimum rental standards.
Please sign the curtain call – a new petition to get the government to do this: https://www.curtaincall.org.nz/
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