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Wellington social housing residents' desperate measures during unbearable summer heat

"Unbearably hot ... it's not even like a sauna, it's hotter than that." Josephine Thomas and her three year old son struggle in summer at the Newtown Park Apartments. "You can't sleep, my son's up, I'm up, we're kept up because of the heat." There was only one option when it got too much, she said. "Escape. Escape my own home which I pay for every week." With the sun beating in and little to no air flow, residents took desperate measures: tinfoiling window panes, permanently closing the drapes, and avoiding cooking. The evening was the hottest, but that was when people wanted to be home the most and cook dinner, Thomas said. She and other tenants would take their food and families elsewhere. Thomas was dreading next summer, and said she felt sad for her son and fellow tenants. "We want solutions, we don't want to keep having to put up with this, it's not good enough," she said. Residents in a Wellington social housing complex are taking desperate measures to avoid the unbearable summer heat. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp Joan Buchanan has lived at the Newtown Park Apartments for more than a decade, and said she had raised the problem since she moved in. "I have already whited out my windows, I close the drapes, and the windows are open, yet it still is really, really, really, really hot," she said. In April, Buchanan took community housing provider Te Toi Mahana to the Tenancy Tribunal, but lost. She was seeking compensation for the portable air conditioning unit she had purchased. The tribunal found while Buchanan's arguments about overheating had merit , there were "no regulatory or legislative requirements for cooling buildings" - so she could not prove the landlord had breached her tenancy agreement, or tenancy law. "But my point is ... you don't put the law as your high bar. It should be your low bar," Buchanan said. Joan Buchanan. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp Te Toi Mahana housing services general manager Daniel Tai said it went "above and beyond" for tenants. "Some homes may become uncomfortably warm for some tenants during summer months and our focus has been to work with other agencies to explore what solutions are available for them," he said. "To deal with overheating we provide two primary means of support, either facilitate a transfer to a cooler property, to another home that better suits their needs, or helping secure finance for cooling appliances." That involved providing a letter of support if tenants wished to seek help from the Ministry of Social Development. It could not do much else aside from taking the problem into account for future builds, Tai said. He was only aware of one complaint about overheating, but RNZ spoke to multiple tenants who had problems. Te Toi Mahana says it can't do much else apart from taking the problem into account for future builds. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp Te Toi Mahana asked Otago University to research overheating in the Newtown Park Apartments. As part of the study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, researchers placed temperature monitors in seven homes. It found all homes recorded maximum temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, apart from those with portable air conditioners. Overheating during sleeping hours was a serious problem, said lead author and PhD candidate Zhiting Chen. "We focused more on sleeping hours overheating because we know it was a more serious issue and it affects our daily life and wellbeing a lot if we can't have a good sleep," she said. "The guideline we used allows bedroom temperatures to go above 26 degrees for only about 1 percent of the night, but in the flats, we monitored temperatures beyond that limit for 8 to 37 percent of sleep time." Portable air conditioning units were effective but pricey and difficult to use, so they were not a viable long-term solution for public housing tenants, the research said. "The study emphasises the urgent need for energy-efficient public housing that ensures year-round healthy thermal conditions for vulnerable populations." Te Toi Mahana would use the research to inform future housing developments, Tai said. Otago University senior research fellow Dr Kimberley O'Sullivan, who also worked on the study and leads the public health department's overheating research, said government regulations forced landlords to ensure homes were not too cold - but there was nothing to stop them being too hot. It had become more of a problem over the last few summers, she said. "We haven't really taken into account how to design for keeping ourselves cool during the summer in our homes. "This is a space where both policy and research are kind of running to catch up and try and understand what's happening now, and then think through how we could rapidly make some changes so that our houses can protect us from outdoor temperatures both in winter and in summer." Kimberley O'Sullivan. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said it was widely acknowledged that overheating was a result of poor design - including window shading, choice of materials, ventilation and building orientation. "MBIE is currently investigating options for supporting the sector with better consideration of these factors in the design of new homes and buildings," said its building performance and engineering manager, Dave Gittings. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.