Housing Policy, Poverty, and Culture: ‘Discounting’ Decisions among Pacific Peoples in Auckland, New Zealand

This paper explores the links between housing and other welfare policies, low income, and culture among Pacific peoples within Auckland, New Zealand. These migrant peoples occupy an ambiguous social space within Auckland: they represent the visible face of the world's largest Polynesian city, yet are occupants of some of the city's poorest and least health-promoting housing. Through considering the balance between choice and constraint, we examine how housing costs, poverty, and cultural practices converge to influence household expenditure decisions. Specifically, we are interested in the ways health-promoting behaviours (for example, obtaining fresh food) and utilising health care services are ‘discounted’ (that is, postponed or substituted with cheaper alternatives) because of costs associated with structural changes in housing and the broader policy context. We draw on narratives gathered from in-depth interviews conducted with seventeen Samoan and Cook Island families undertaken in the South Auckland suburb of Otara in mid-2000. Our findings illustrate a lack of ‘fit’ between state housing stock and its occupants. We conclude that, although a recent return to a policy of income-related rents may alleviate these conditions, further longitudinal and community-supported research is required to monitor whether health inequalities are in fact lessened through income-related interventions alone.