A terminally ill man has received an apology from Government housing agency Kāinga Ora after it took longer than a year to install a heat pump into his home.
Clarence Matthews is dying from a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, otherwise known as COPD. He finds it difficult to breathe, and says the cold house isn’t helping.
“I told my wife I just can't wait because it's taking a lot out on me and my grandchildren,” Clarence told 1 NEWS.
He’s lived in a West Auckland house for 14 years with his wife, and two moko.
Corina Shields, his daughter, first asked Kāinga Ora last June to install a heat pump to help heat the four bedroom home.
“This is all having a major effect on his health. It's a constant case of having to follow things up all the time, and it shouldn't have to be that hard,” Corina told 1 NEWS.
While Kāinga Ora’s provided a portable plug-in heater in the living room, and a wall mounted timer heater in Clarence’s bedroom, he says he gets cold at night.
“Sometimes I sleep with four blankets on and I still get cold,” he told 1 NEWS.
In 2019 the Government introduced the ‘Healthy Homes’ standard, requiring all rental properties to have sufficient heating, insulation, ventilation and drainage.
Private landlords have to meet the standards by next month, but Kāinga Ora has until 2023.
That’s unless a tenant has critical health needs like Clarence.
When 1 NEWS asked Kāinga Ora to explain why it was taking so long, it got in touch with the Matthews family. As of yesterday morning, a heat pump was installed.
Taina Jones, Kāinga Ora’s Regional Director for North and West Auckland says they simply didn’t get it right.
“We should have done better and we should have actually prioritised his case when we first found out about it. But we didn’t,” she told 1 NEWS.
The Government housing agency says others can have faith this was a particular case.
“We've got a 24/7 call centre, we have an expectation on our team members that they will hear when people are ringing in to say that this is the situation with their whanau member or themselves. In this case, we missed it, we didn't get it right. I think it is particular to Mr Matthews.”
Kāinga Ora says it’s meeting with Clarence next week to apologise in person.
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