Making sense of the links between housing affordability and the meaning of home / Patrick Barrett

The housing and homemaking experiences of young people with disabilities / Tara Coleman

Young Māori mothers in and around Horowhenua talk about housing and home / Anna Adcock and Fiona Cram

Vignette: He Whare Moemoea / Irirakau Tawa and Joanne Donovan

Young peoples’ experiences in the early stages of independent living / James Berghan

Older Māori returning to papakāinga and marae-based housing / Fiona Cram

“I treat it as my place”: Senior tenants making a home in uncertain circumstances / Bev James, Tara Coleman and Fiona Cram

(Re)making a new home in a new land: The experience of former refugees / Elsie Ho

“Pets non-negotiable”: Pet restrictions and the construction of home in the private rental market / Nina Saville-Smith

Responding to the experience of homemaking in unaffordable and precarious housing / Patrick Barrett, Bev James and Fiona Cram

The Affordable Housing for Generations Research in the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge has tackled many aspects of the conundrum of the
housing crisis in this country. It has explored how housing markets and housing distribution are associated with wellbeing. It has looked at the price points at which housing is affordable. It has delved into the interaction between dwelling performance and affordability across the life cycle of dwellings. The research has considered different ways that affordable housing for low- and middle- income houses might be leveraged. Much of that research addresses issues around structural aspects of the housing system. The research component reported here, however, focuses on li ved experience of those who are burdened by the insecurity of
unaffordable housing.

Low-income households, especially those in the rental market who have little control over their housing costs, whether young or old, have had to confront housing costs eroding their buying
power and living standards. These households have limited negotiating power around the price or conditions by which they access housing. They find themselves in a situation where
they are merely price takers. Often they have to accept inadequately performing dwellings. Their access to dwellings, or even temporary accommodation, is contingent of the decisions of and conditions set by others. Moreover, those conditions frequently determine aspects of their
lives which others who have affordable and secure housing can control. Decisions around who can visit or stay, whether to have a pet, how often we want to vacuum the floors, what colour our walls are, whether we hang pictures, how we neglect or improve our section, are taken for granted by those lucky enough to have secure and affordable housing.
This is not the case for all. Moreover, while many of us can make decisions about our homes in the knowledge that we are likely to have a secure housing future (either in our existing
dwelling or another broadly amendable to our tastes and needs) there are many who do not.

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Notwithstanding, individuals, whānau and families burdened by severely unaffordable and precarious housing actively pursue homemaking. Active homemaking is a testimony to
the centrality of housing and its function as the infrastructure of wellbeing. This research shows the commitment of people struggling against the housing odds to make life better for
themselves, their whānau and their communities. The research demonstrates how much more could be achieved through stable and affordable housing and what is at the heart
of a home. (From the Preface). Record #8679