I haven't read the listener much since it became available in a soothing gel. The cover story of this weeks listener screams insipid nonsense, so you wouldn't know that one of the stories is so important it's worth buying the entire magazine (or reading in the supermarket). The article begins (the article will be available on-line after April 11):
In the winding backstreets of Mangere, where most New Zealanders will never go, there is a shameful secret. Here, in a South Auckland cul de sac, almost 1000 people live in a cluster of buildings that was once the Mangere hospital for the insane and intellectually handicapped, closed in 1994.There has been a lot of media reporting recently about the housing crisis, and it almost entirely focuses on couples who each have a higher than average income, and yet still can't afford to buy their own home. The reality is that rapidly increasing house prices and rents mean real hardship.
In an area of about a square kilometre, the buildings of the former institution have been turned into privately owned boarding houses.
Entire families – some with up to four children – live in rooms little more than three metres by four metres that were originally designed for single patients. Each boarding house has about 30 rooms, branching off long, lino-covered institutional hallways. There are a handful of toilets to cater for as many as 100 people. Showers are shared, as is the single stove in a communal kitchen
The article is a fine piece of investigative journalism. David Fisher, the author, puts the stories of people who have no choice but to live in this foul accommodation front and centre. He also holds those who are responsible for the situation to account. He talks, in some detail, about the people who own these boarding houses, giving their names occupations, and their attempt to interview him. He also holds various government agencies who recommend these boarding houses to people, and advance money to pay for the bond. He lets the government condemn itself, with Maryann Street blaming the previous national government for selling off state houses (you can build quite a lot of houses in nine years).
Go find a copy of this weeks listener and read the article.
5 comments:
One of the first things I thought when I read your well-placed applause for the investigative journalism shown in this article, was "I wonder what the effective hourly rate paid to the writer ended up being?" We desperately need more quality writing like this in the mainstream media in New Zealand, but no one is paying for it.
Ok - slight oops - I just double-checked and since David Fisher is currently on staff at the Listener, I have to award them props for allocating resources to get this story out there. But we still need more quality investigative journalism from staff and freelancers and it's unlikely to happen until there are more salaried journalists and better rates for freelancers in the system.
I was quite surprised to see this article in the Listener. I think I've bought one copy in the last six months (when I was at the dairy and had to pay for a litre of milk by eftpos and felt guilty about the small size of my purchase). It seems to be getting back to the Good Stuff again, which is great, because we really need these stories to be told. It's a shame that it hasn't got broader coverage.
I am totally over the media obsession (and indeed the general middle class obsession) with interest rates, mortgages, house prices, etc. It is kind of like the creeping increase in coverage of the sharemarket on the TV news - actually this stuff is utterly irrelevant to a lot of NZers. But I guess those who do care are the ones the advertisers are after, so it's not going to change anytime soon.
Really good point Lyn.
Julie - The listener has always been the worst at this sort of thing. I'm fairly sure they once had an article called "NCEA, and how it'll effect your house prices." Which is why it was such a pleasant surprise that they wrote about something substantive
I think they just cycle through a set of stories - real estate prices, latest diet/health scare, how to invest your money, etc. It seems like it doesn't take very long before you're going "Yo what? Real estate again?"
Post a Comment