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Speaker 1: Coying Aura is taking a step in the right direction.

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Speaker 1: They have announced a tough approach to rental debt, but

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Speaker 1: they're doing it in a fair way, which hopefully gives

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Speaker 1: people who intend to pay their rent but have hit

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Speaker 1: a hurdle a chance to get back on track. The

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Speaker 1: debt was kind of crazy. Between twenty seventeen and twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, the total debt owed to Coying Aura by

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Speaker 1: its tenants increased from one million to twenty one million.

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Speaker 1: Not obviously, this period included the COVID days and cost

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Speaker 1: of living crisis, and it would have been a little

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Speaker 1: heartless for the government to kick people out of homes

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Speaker 1: during a lockdown or due to a job loss caused

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Speaker 1: by an unprecedented event like a pandemic. But twenty one million,

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Speaker 1: it is a big number. Coung Aora has worked hard

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Speaker 1: to reduce that debt is now down from twenty one

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Speaker 1: point six million in January twenty twenty four to sixteen

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Speaker 1: point one million this January. It is a good effort,

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Speaker 1: but clearly things have got out of control and we're

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Speaker 1: never going to get on top of the numbers. So

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Speaker 1: the Board of coyng AURA has decided to help some

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Speaker 1: tenants with significant rent debt get on top of their

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Speaker 1: debt faster. They're going to reduce the amount they owe

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Speaker 1: down to twelve weeks worth of rent and forgive the

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Speaker 1: rest if the tenant has been consistently paying rent and

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Speaker 1: making reasonable payments to reduce what they owe. So this

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Speaker 1: is going to wipe eight million off the debt number,

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Speaker 1: which is a quick way to make the numbers look

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Speaker 1: more appealing, isn't it. But were we ever going to

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Speaker 1: recoup the money from the twenty tenants owing more than

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Speaker 1: twelve weeks? No? So why not give people an incentive

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Speaker 1: to pay This is a pragmatic decision, but it raises

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Speaker 1: the question what's stopping tenants just clocking up the debt

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Speaker 1: if they know that it will be reduced back to

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Speaker 1: twelve weeks. Well, this is a one time offer because

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Speaker 1: from now on tenants won't get to the point of

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Speaker 1: owing more than twelve weeks rent. Coying o Or estates

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Speaker 1: they will be in touch much earlier if rent is

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Speaker 1: missed to have a chat and to work out a

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Speaker 1: payback plan. If this doesn't happen, if there is no

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Speaker 1: intent to pay off debt, then eviction processes will begin,

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Speaker 1: which could happen well before reaching the twelve week mark.

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Speaker 1: So the message is very clear here. Sustaining tenancy's framework

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Speaker 1: is coming to an end. It is going to be

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Speaker 1: easy to evict people, but they'll be closely managed to

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Speaker 1: prevent things getting to that point if possible, and I

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Speaker 1: think we'd all agree people deserve an opportunity to get

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Speaker 1: back on track and the last thing we want to

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Speaker 1: see is an unnecessary increase in homelessness. As Associate Housing

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Speaker 1: Minister Tama Poltaka said yesterday, while most king or attendants

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Speaker 1: are great tenants who respect the properties and good neighbors

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Speaker 1: and pay their rent on time, some need a little

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Speaker 1: more to talk encouragement to do the right thing. For

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Speaker 1: more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to

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