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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has dodged questions on whether she considers the housing crisis a human rights crisis, after an inquiry into the issue was announced.
The Human Rights Commission will launch a national inquiry into housing after what it says has been "a failure" by successive Governments.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says everyone has the right to a decent home, but successive governments have promised and failed to make this a reality.
"Successive governments for the last 50 years have not delivered on this human right to a decent home here in New Zealand," he says.
"The right to a decent home, although binding on New Zealand in international law, is almost invisible and unknown in Aotearoa," he said in a statement.
Details of the inquiry will be released later this year.
When asked on Monday if she believed the housing crisis is a human rights crisis, Ardern dodged the question.
"I believe we have a housing crisis and everything we've done as a Government has been an acknowledgement that we need to act and we need to do what we can," she said.
"Of course [we need to] encourage as much activity and support as much activity in the private development sector as we can because we believe everyone deserves a warm, dry, affordable home."
When pressed further if she saw it as a human rights crisis, she said it can be called both a housing crisis or a human rights crisis - regardless, "it needs to be dealt with".
Do you think housing is a human right?
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