The Government has removed a performance measure that assessed Ministry of Social Development managers against emergency housing targets, replacing it with a focus on helping people move into sustainable housing.
In June, 1News exclusively revealed that ministry managers were assessed against 11 performance measures, including whether their regions were meeting the Government’s emergency housing reduction targets.
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has now released new performance agreements for the new financial year, showing the performance indicator directly linked to emergency housing targets has been replaced with a new measure called “Improved housing solutions".
Under the updated measure, managers have been told they will be assessed on the percentage of people who leave emergency housing into "sustainable housing solutions".
The change follows criticism from housing advocates, who raised concerns that linking staff performance to emergency housing numbers could create pressure to decline applications.
Previous performance letters told managers: “Where performance does not meet expectation, you will be required to develop and implement targeted improvement plans to address gaps and restore performance.”
The Ministry of Social Development said the previous performance letters were not used to threaten staff over their jobs and, in the 2025/26 financial year, no staff were subject to performance management relating to the Government's emergency housing targets.
On Sunday, Q+A reported MSD managers were being individually assessed on whether they keep emergency housing numbers under the Government's targets. (Source: Breakfast)
Ministry group general manager for service delivery Graham Allpress said the focus would now be on achieving better housing outcomes.
“With the Government emergency housing reduction target having been met, we expect regional leaders’ focus to be on achieving sustainable housing for people currently in emergency housing and offering other support for those who are not eligible,” he said.
The Government’s emergency housing reduction target had already been achieved before MSD issued last year’s performance agreements, but the specific emergency housing KPI remained in place for managers at that time.
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