(Picture caption: The Healthy Homes Initiative is helping more Pacific and Māori people to obtain warm, dry and healthy homes. PHOTO CREDIT: Supplied.)
The Healthy Homes Initiative has made a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of over 31,000 tamariki/hapū māmā and over 111,000 members of their aiga, according to the latest three-year evaluation report released recently.
To date, the Healthy Homes Initiative has delivered over 100,000 interventions – providing education, beds and bedding, curtains, housing relocation, and heating to those who need it most.
Minister for Pacific Peoples and Associate Minister for Health Hon Aupito William Sio says it is significant that 94 percent of referrals identify as Māori or Pacific.
“Many in our communities live in multi-generational households and have multiple health conditions,” he says.
Associate Minister of Health Hon Ayesha Verrall adds the current government believes everyone deserves a warm, dry, healthy home.
“Poor housing stock can make people sick and by improving housing conditions, people are healthier and more likely to stay in school or in work, while also relieving pressure on the health system,” Minister Verrall says.
“These results support our decision to expand the programme to nationwide coverage….we’ve invested $30 million in the initiative and in Budget 22 funded its extension to the whole country.”
Minister Verrall says it is an example of wellbeing investment at work and adds that programmes like this are improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.
“They are a key component of our plan to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child.”
Initially, the programme targeted low-income families with children at risk of rheumatic fever but was expanded to focus on families with children aged up to five, and pregnant women, and recently rolled-out to the rest of the country.
The programme is part of the Government’s wider housing programme which includes major investment in rebuilding the public housing sector (10,000 additional homes and counting), retrofitting state houses to bring them up to standard and billions of dollars for critical housing infrastructure.
Visit Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand’s website for more information on the initiative.