Human Rights Foundation report finds Māori housing policy going backwards

The New Zealand Human Rights Foundation has published a report finding that persistent housing inequality in Aotearoa remains largely unchanged, with Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people and renters bearing the brunt. The report, titled 'The right to a decent home in Aotearoa New Zealand: review 2023-2026', was launched at PSA House in Wellington on Monday, August 10, 2026 (NZ Human Rights Foundation, LinkedIn).

The review identified several government initiatives as contributing to declines in housing affordability, security of tenure, accessibility and cultural adequacy (RNZ). RNZ reported the Foundation found there has been 'almost no progress' in realising the right to a decent home since 2023 (RNZ). Te Ao News separately reported the Foundation's finding that the Government is taking Māori housing and Te Tiriti commitments 'backwards' (Te Ao News).

The report applies United Nations decency principles to assess the housing landscape. Those principles cover habitability, affordability, security of tenure, accessibility, cultural advocacy, location and provision to access core services (RNZ).

Jacqueline Paul, a Māori housing expert and member of the NZ Human Rights Foundation's managing committee, said there has been an increase in evictions from emergency housing affecting both Māori and tamariki (RNZ).

The report puts forward two principal recommendations. First, it recommends removing conditions for continuing Kāinga Ora tenancies that limit the universal right to housing, including evictions for 'antisocial behaviour' or not 'engaging' with a payment plan (RNZ). Second, it recommends reinstating the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga initiative as a dedicated Māori housing funding stream. The targeted strategy was disestablished in Budget 2025, with its money redirected to the government's Flexible Housing fund (RNZ).

RNZ approached Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka for comment on the report (RNZ).

For those working in the housing policy and parliamentary context, the report's framework matters because it applies an international human rights lens rather than a purely market or supply analysis. By measuring government initiatives against UN decency principles, the Foundation positions the right to housing as universal, which sits in direct tension with policies like conditional Kāinga Ora tenancies and the folding of Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga into the Flexible Housing fund.

The recommendation to strip tenancy conditions around 'antisocial behaviour' and payment-plan engagement speaks to a live and specific policy disagreement. The government framed those conditions as accountability mechanisms for tenants and responsible use of public housing stock. The Foundation frames them as barriers to a universal right. The report's call to reinstate Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga as a dedicated funding stream touches on another live debate about whether targeted, by-Māori-for-Māori procurement and delivery models produce better outcomes than aggregated, contestable funds.

For ministers and advisers in the Beehive, the political difficulty is that the report's findings land on multiple pressure points simultaneously: Māori housing outcomes, Te Tiriti commitments, emergency housing policy and the public housing tenancy regime. The launch event at PSA House drew together a constituency, including the Foundation, DCM Wellington and attendees from the public housing and community sectors, that is framing the government's current direction as a regression.