When The Door Gets Narrower: Kāinga Ora’s Accessible Housing Retreat is a Human Rights Failure

If politicians claim this is about efficiency, they should explain why New Zealand continues choosing expensive retrofits, emergency housing, hospital delays and institutional care over simply building homes people can live in from the start.

I have spent much of my life adapting to spaces that were never built for me. Doorways too narrow with bathrooms too small and kitchens I cannot reach. Rental homes where a single step at the front door may as well be a brick wall. Disabled people in Aotearoa become experts at shrinking our lives to fit inaccessible spaces. We learn to live in only part of our homes. We sleep in lounges because bedrooms are inaccessible. We wash in unsafe bathrooms. We rely on family because cupboards, benches and appliances are physically out of reach.

I know this personally.

I am grateful to live in modified state housing, however, gratitude should not require silence. My own home is still only partially accessible. A few doors were widened. That was considered enough. My kitchen remains largely unusable because officials determined I have people who can cook for me which entirely misses the point. Cooking is not simply about survival. It is independence. It is joy. It is culture. My birth father was a chef, and I love food, flavours and creativity. Yet policy reduced that part of my life to a bureaucratic calculation which is that someone else can feed you, therefore you do not need access. That mindset now appears to be shaping national housing policy.

Recent reports indicate Kāinga Ora has stepped back from its previous commitment that at least 15 percent of new builds would meet full universal design standards. That target was never ambitious enough. Yet instead of increasing it to reflect our ageing population and growing disability needs, we are watching even that modest commitment disappear which should alarm every New Zealander. Because this was never just about disabled people. It was about older people wanting to age safely at home, it was about families with disabled children and it was about people injured in accidents. It was also about whānau recovering from illness and future proofing housing for a country where accessibility demand will increase, not decrease. Instead, we are once again building exclusion into our infrastructure. And it is disabled people will pay the price.

Building exclusion by design

Only a small percentage of housing stock in Aotearoa has meaningful accessibility features where many newer townhouses are built on narrow footprints with multiple levels, tight hallways, inaccessible bathrooms and entrances that physically exclude wheelchair users before they even reach the front door. Entire suburbs are being built that many disabled people cannot enter and that is not accidental because that is policy. When accessible homes are scarce, disabled people are pushed into impossible choices which are to remain in unsafe homes or stay trapped with abusive relationships because leaving means homelessness. We are forced to enter aged care facilities early and rely on whānau already stretched beyond capacity. We will become homeless because housing insecurity for disabled people is often hidden because many of us disappear behind family walls. We become the invisible homeless through couch surfing or living in garages with some remaining in hospital longer because there is nowhere safe to discharge us. We are entering residential care decades earlier than necessary and this is not independence, it is institutional drift in modern clothing.

Politicians are creating a perfect storm

This decision does not exist in isolation because disabled communities are already being hit from multiple directions this election cycle where housing access is shrinking, welfare reforms are increasing sanctions and hardship and not implementing the WEAG report shows reform is now further away for welfare. Employment pathways remain deeply inaccessible, education supports continue to be inconsistent. Disability support funding has already faced restrictions and instability. Transport remains unreliable while healthcare waitlists continue to grow. Each decision is often framed as “efficiency,” “cost control,” or “better targeting” but when disabled people are repeatedly the ones losing access to basic rights, we need to call this what it is, it is systemic exclusion where you cannot slash supports in multiple sectors and pretend these decisions are unrelated.

Housing affects health and health affects employment where employment affects poverty where poverty affects housing. These systems are interconnected, disabled people are being squeezed from every direction.

This may breach New Zealand’s obligations under the UNCRPD

New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008 and that means these rights are not optional.

Article 19

Disabled people have the right to live independently and be included in the community. That right becomes meaningless if there is nowhere accessible to live.

Article 28

Disabled people have the right to an adequate standard of living, including housing. Not theoretical housing but actual accessible housing.

Article 9

Governments must identify and eliminate barriers to accessibility. Instead, we are actively building new ones.

Article 4

Governments must avoid policies that weaken disability rights protections. Rolling back accessibility commitments moves us backwards.

That is rights regression.

New Zealand has also committed itself to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Te Tiriti obligations remain highly relevant here for Māori, disability inequity intersects with housing inequity. Māori are disproportionately represented in poor housing statistics, homelessness figures and state housing need. Disabled Māori sit at the intersection of both and when accessible housing shrinks, whānau hauā are hit hardest.

The false economy of retrofitting

There is also a brutal economic truth politicians continue to ignore which is that retrofitting homes later costs significantly more than building access in from the beginning. Widening doors later costs more, redoing bathrooms later costs more. Installing ramps later costs more. Rebuilding kitchens later costs more. Emergency housing costs more. Hospital bed block costs more. Residential care costs more and finally, homelessness costs more. The cheapest time to build accessibility is at the beginning. We know this. Kāinga Ora knew this when it introduced its original accessibility policy. Now we are going backwards.

What should happen instead?

The 15 percent target should not be abandoned, in fact it should be expanded and at a minimum reinstate the 15 percent target immediately and increase universal design requirements across all new public housing builds also retrofit existing state homes when tenants leave. We need to Introduce mandatory accessibility standards for all large-scale residential developments and strengthen the weak enforcement mechanisms in the Accessibility for New Zealanders Act 2022. It is important to collect accurate disability housing data and ensure disabled people are involved in housing design decisions and remember nothing about us without us cannot remain a slogan which must shape housing policy.

The real question voters should ask

This election cycle, disabled people are watching closely and we are watching which parties see us as citizens and which parties see us as costs. Yet, housing is not a luxury and accessibility is not a special feature. Our independence should not be reserved for non-disabled people. A nation reveals its values in the homes it builds and right now, New Zealand is building homes that tell disabled people that we were never expected to live here and that should shame us all.

Further reading / resources

Housing accessibility in Aotearoa

Kāinga Ora Accessibility Policy (2019)
This is the original policy where Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities committed to ensuring at least 15% of new builds met universal design standards, while requiring the remaining homes to include as many accessibility features as possible. It is important because it shows there was once a clear benchmark.

Kāinga Ora OIA on accessible housing stock
Shows the limited number of fully accessible homes available and the historic lack of comprehensive data collection around accessibility.

1News: Disabled man waits for accessible housing
Highlights the real-world consequences of accessible housing shortages, including long wait times and unsuitable housing offers. It noted 2,223 people were waiting for accessible public housing as of August 2025.

Disability rights and human rights obligations

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

Particularly relevant:

• Article 9 – Accessibility

• Article 19 – Living independently and being included in the community

• Article 28 – Adequate standard of living and social protection

These articles directly relate to housing access.

UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – New Zealand review

Tracks concerns raised internationally about New Zealand’s implementation gaps.

New Zealand Disability Strategy 2026–2030

Whaikaha, the Ministry of Disabled People explicitly identifies accessible housing as a priority and states disabled people should have housing that is affordable, secure, accessible and supports independence.

Research on accessible housing shortages

Donald Beasley Institute – My Experiences, My Rights
Monitoring report on disabled people’s housing experiences

A powerful report documenting inaccessible housing, homelessness risks and systemic failures for disabled people in Aotearoa. It also notes that only a very small proportion of homes meet universal design standards.

BRANZ research on universal design
Research repeatedly shows it is significantly cheaper to build accessibility into homes from the outset than to retrofit later. This directly undermines arguments that accessible housing is “too expensive.”

Māori housing inequity

Waitangi Tribunal Housing Inquiry (Wai 2750)

This inquiry examines systemic housing inequities affecting Māori, including overcrowding, homelessness and structural exclusion.

For whānau hauā, these inequities often compound disability-related barriers.

Building accessibility standards

NZ Standard 4121:2001 – Design for Access and Mobility

This standard is frequently criticised for being outdated and inconsistently applied as I’ve written before many new builds continue to exclude wheelchair users before they even reach the front door.

Useful advocacy organisations

• Disabled Persons Assembly New Zealand does disability advocacy

• CCS Disability Action does housing and accessibility advocacy

• Access Alliance does accessibility advocacy

• Human Rights Commission for discrimination complaints and rights education

• Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission

• Community Housing Aotearoa