The New Zealand Human Rights Foundation has published a report finding that housing inequality in Aotearoa remains largely unchanged, with Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people and renters hit hardest. 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 (how secure a tenant's right to stay is), accessibility and cultural adequacy (RNZ). RNZ reported the Foundation found there has been 'almost no progress' on 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 uses United Nations decency principles to assess the housing landscape. Those principles cover habitability, affordability, security of tenure, accessibility, cultural advocacy, location and access to 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 makes two main recommendations. First, it calls for removing conditions that allow Kāinga Ora (the state housing agency) to end tenancies, including evictions for 'antisocial behaviour' or for not 'engaging' with a payment plan (RNZ). Second, it recommends reinstating Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga — a dedicated Māori housing funding stream that 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).

The broader context here is that the report applies an international human rights lens to housing rather than a purely market-based or supply analysis. By measuring government initiatives against UN decency principles, the Foundation treats 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 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 touches on another live debate: whether targeted, by-Māori-for-Māori delivery models produce better outcomes than aggregated, contestable funds where providers compete for the same pool of money.

For ministers and advisers in the Beehive, the political difficulty is that the report's findings land on multiple pressure points at once: 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.