Social housing across the country left empty due to methamphetamine contamination is set to be made available to tenants once again.
Christchurch City Council is looking at opening up housing stock that's long been boarded up - hot on the heels of a report saying there are no known health risks from third hand exposure to meth.
Bruce Rendall, the Christchurch City Council’s head of Facilities, Property and Planning, says the council may allow people to live in meth-contaminated homes as "a way of reducing our costs".
"More importantly, we've got 20 units and we want to be able to get those back to some of the 522 people on the Christchurch waiting list as quickly as possible," Mr Rendall said.
The Christchurch City Council has been quick to respond because it is a significant owner of social housing, but they will still review the report to see if they will definitely change their approach.
In the last 11 months, Housing New Zealand has found contamination in nearly 670 of its homes nation-wide - about one per cent of its total stock.
The Government says under its new guidelines, there are around 240 homes fit to be used again.
However, the Homeowners and Buyers Association is cautious, advising people to instead use the current, lower guidelines.
"We are concerned that moves, particularly by the Government, to put tenants back into Housing New Zealand homes is potentially going to put them at risk," John Grey said.
The insurance industry is welcoming the report, saying it will end confusion around what has been a growing issue.
"Typically, during the course of the year, we pay out something in the order of about $30 million and that comes as the result of three claims a day or 100 a month coming through," Insurance Council CEO Tim Grafton said.
The Government's ruling out compensation, but the NZ Drug Foundation is demanding payouts for tenants who lost their homes.
Ross Bell, the Director of the NZ Drug Foundation, says the "social harm" of the incident is "horrific".
"Their possessions have been destroyed as part of the decontamination process, they have been removed from homes, they have not been allowed access to social housing again, kids have had to move from one school to another," Ross Bell, the Director of the NZ Drug Foundation, said.
After years of chaos, how long it will take before people can return to affected units remains a lingering question.
"That would really depend on the level of contamination but we will try to get them open as quickly as possible," Mr Rendall said.
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