A Hawea public health researcher is encouraging people to take part in a survey to help assess housing issues in this district.

Dr Vanessa Hammond, a public health analyst for Public Health South (Southern DHB), said the DHB is hearing increasing reports of local people living in substandard housing and/or facing severe financial stress due to the local cost of housing.

Where-ever she goes, housing is the “number one topic”, Vanessa said. “Housing is a key social determinant of health. Adequate, affordable housing is a basic human right.”

While the survey covers the southern region, the results will be analysed at a local level. Wanaka has housing issues, Vanessa said, but they are likely to differ from those in other townships.

“We are assessing how local people are living, and how that is affecting their lives,” she said.

Vanessa has been interviewing key informants (for example social workers, teachers, pastors, and business owners), who have said “there are very substandard rentals in Wanaka”.

The housing survey is open to all Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes residents. The survey asks about the condition of people’s homes, how they are heating them, where people are sleeping and how many to a room or area, how often they’ve had to move in the past two years (and why) and who they live with.

Vanessa will analyse the results and prepare a public report, which may be used by various groups - including the DHB - to advocate for improved housing standards and supply in the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes District.

“A lot of the discussion is around ‘show us the evidence’, and we want to meet that gap,” she said.

Vanessa said the survey only takes three to four minutes to complete, it is anonymous, and there will be a prize draw of three $100 fuel vouchers.

Find the survey, which is open until May 6 here.

PHOTO: Barking Maude