Kua whati te tara o te marama, kua pouri te po. E te ihorei o Maniapoto, e Koro Tainui Wetere, te aunga o te moe ki a koe. Kei te kahui whetu o Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e tangi atu nei, e mihi atu nei. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Karahuihui mai. He kura kainga e hokia, he kura tangata e kore e hokia. The hysteria over third-hand methamphetamine contamination has come to an abrupt end after a damning report found 'absolutely no evidence' of any harm caused from passive use. But over the last two years Housing New Zealand has issued 300 eviction notices as a result of its meth testing regime, a regime we now know was based on incorrect assumptions and flawed policy. While many evictions may have been justified, many were not. Today in this special episode of The Hui, we look at the human cost of those evictions. These are the stories of some of the innocent victims whose lives have been damaged in the Housing New Zealand meth testing debacle. Housing New Zealand spent $100 million testing and cleaning homes for methamphetamine contamination. Some homes were demolished or left empty in the midst of a national housing crisis. I'll be homeless, live on the street. I don't know what that drug was, to be honest. I didn't even know what it did to people. Hundreds of families were evicted from their state houses, some pursued through the courts for costs ` even dobbing in tenants with children to Oranga Tamariki. They tried to take my kids off me. What did they say? Because I was living in a contaminated home. Now a new bombshell report by the country's top scientist shows 10s of thousands of homes have been needlessly tested and cleaned. That money was just a waste of money. That money could have been put into other things. Today three people speak to us about their experience of the Housing New Zealand meth testing fiasco. I just wanna do this for everyone that suffered. I lived in the house with my three children. At the time, I had a teenager and two babies with me. I was living in a very nice area, actually. It was actually, like, a brand new subdivision. And your kids liked it? Absolutely. It was fully fenced, it was safe, it was at the end of a cul de sac. It was perfect. So, would you say you were a good tenant? Absolutely. Absolutely. I was loved by all my neighbours. Ended up being family with these people. I loved that house. My kids loved it. It took us a while to get over it, that we weren't there. My house was in Pembroke St in New Plymouth. I stayed there for up to four years. I lived there by myself, but I have nine grandchildren and two daughters, and they all used to come over and see me. I loved that house. I had decked it out to the way I liked it. It was colourful. And, yeah, it was home. Were you a good tenant? I'm a good tenant. I paid my rent. I'm a good tenant. We used to have a big tree there. Nice house. Big green house. Have the best memories since I was a young child. My mother looked after us in that house. Best memories I have in that house is with my mother, with my siblings. It was a part of our heart, you know, and our siblings. So that's a long time to be in one house, eh. Yes. You didn't know anything different. No, I just knew home was home. Things did change, unfortunately, after, you know, my mum passed away when I was only 14 years old. I was still a kid, but all I knew is that my sister was going to fight for the house so we could still keep that homestead. You must've been afraid of losing the house. You must've not even thought about it until it came up. Yes, you're right. I didn't really think about it until I was getting into my teenager stage and realising that, 'Oh, where are we gonna move to?' You know? We're gonna depart from here and go our separate ways. Didn't know, really, where we were gonna go. So your sister did manage to get the tenancy from Housing New Zealand, and you got to stay. Yes, that's right. It was good, you know. It was the happiest feeling in my life. Cos you needed your family cos you'd lost your mum. Yeah, that's right. (SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC) What actually flicked the light on there was I was having a few dramas with previous tenants that was also in a Housing New Zealand home. I have my suspicions, and between me and the neighbours, we believe that they were drug dealers, gang-related. In your house? No, across the road. And I had put this through to the police. They had parties all the time, where they would bring their parties into the cul de sac. We're talking gang brawls in the cul de sac. I tried to tell them. But to me, I believe being a Maori, they didn't wanna listen. Um, I tried. I even took my family in there and said, 'Look, we've got some problems.' So instead, she rang me up out of the blue one day and she said, 'Under suspicion, 'I'm going to be sending the meth lab over to your house. 'They will be there in 24 hours.' Suspicion of...? Suspicion of me smoking methamphetamine. Apparently I was cooking it. Do you remember the lead-up to Housing New Zealand coming in and testing? What happened? There was a story going around about we were selling synthetics. Because our house was on the media. They filmed out house, outside the front of our house. We started getting all these feedbacks from other people. Housing New Zealand got in contact with us that same day. And so they told us that our house would be getting tested for synthetics. Those people that said that had false accusations. It was all false. It was not true. They said to me that I was randomly picked. But I think it was because it was me. And, like, back in New Plymouth, yes, I have been in trouble with the law and things like that. But they said that I was drug dealing, but I wasn't. I had a lot of people coming around home to see me, and I'm also an admin for a group where we were protesting against the TPPA, and I just had people coming all the time. So they thought you were a drug dealer? Yes. Did they have any evidence? No. And I had never had the police come to my house or anything the whole four and a half years I was there. Where do you think that came from? From the other neighbour. Cos we were bickering back and forth for many months. I was targeted to be seen as a liar. What do you feel like you were trying to do? Trying to get my neighbourhood back to how it was ` peaceful, quiet, family-orientated. All about whanau and our kids. Hei muri i nga whakatairanga ko korero te tokotoru nei mo te whakamatautau i o ratou whare. After the break, Belinda, Donna and Damian discuss the testing of their homes and their evictions. Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro. He kura kainga e hokia, he kura tangata e kore e hokia. (THEME MUSIC) Housing New Zealand says change is needed to become a more empathetic landlord. Former tenants Donna McGuigan, Belinda Riritahi and Damian Poto say their experiences were in stark contrast to that new vision. All deny ever using meth in their homes and say their lives have been shattered by Housing New Zealand's flawed meth testing regime. Anei te wahanga tuarua. Housing New Zealand got in contact with us, and they told us that our house would be getting tested for synthetics, which they bring the forensics around. The forensics come inside, told us we had to get out for about, um, two hours or three hours and a half, so we all just sat outside our house, you know, just across the road, while we watched the tenancy managers walk into the house with the forensics. They didn't come out till about three and a half hours later and said that they would get in contact with us within the next 10 working days. And so they said they were testing for synthetics? Yes. And when you heard back from them, what did you learn? That they came back testing for meth, which was shocking for us. And was the test positive, obviously? Yes, the test was positive. We were only innocent kids at the time. We don't know what that stuff was. I never got a letter to say that they were coming; I was told over the phone that they would be there in 24 hours. So I woke up in the morning to get my children ready, as you do, open up my door and there's a man standing there in a white suit looking at me. Couldn't even see nothing but his eyeballs. And I'm like, 'Who are you?' 'I've come here to swab your home.' And there was three others behind him. And I was like, 'This is just crazy, mate. This is really crazy and upsetting.' Never had no respect throughout the whole thing, to be honest. No respect at all. I got a letter and they said that they'd be at my house three days after receiving the letter. And they said they were coming to test the house for methamphetamine. What did you think? I thought, 'What?' I says, 'What's going on? Because I'm a clean person in my house, 'and I have my grandchildren around.' But you can't say no to Housing New Zealand. You gotta let them come do their thing. So I let them come. And when they came through, what happened? Well, I sat outside. They done their testing, and, yeah, and then they left. Did you get to see the test? Didn't get to see the test. No, we didn't. Did they tell you what levels they had found? No, we didn't. So no paperwork? No paperwork. Got nothing. And so once they had been through the house, what happened next? I just carried on like usual, you know, not expecting anything to come back. And then I had a leak in the house, around the side of the house, so I wrote to Housing New Zealand to come and fix it, like you have to do. So anyway, they sent these guys. And when I went outside, they got out of their van and they started dressing in these white clothes. And I said to them, 'What are you doing?' And they says, 'Oh, you'll get a phone call from Housing Corporation and they'll tell you.' And I says, well, you're not coming in my house until I find out why you're dressed like that. So anyway, they never rang me, so I rang down to Housing Corp and I says, 'What's going on?' And then that's when they told me, 'Your house has been contaminated with methamphetamine.' When all this went down, I had people ringing me up saying, 'That house used to be a drug house.' I had no idea. The previous tenant ` why was she kicked out? Because she was selling meth. I had no idea. And had your house ever been tested before you shifted in? No. No, it hadn't. So you've lived there for three years or so and... Knew nothing. Knew nothing. How do you think they go there, the methamphetamine? I know how they got there because I found out who lived in the house before me, and they were P dealers. So, yeah, it was the tenants before me, yes. She said to me, "The readings have come through, "and I'm now giving you 90 days' notice to get out of our house. "if you continue to stay there, the house is now contaminated; you are to continue paying rent. "Or you can move out, but either-either, you've still gotta continue paying your rent. "Until 90 days was over and done with." But the house was contaminated. Yeah. And she gave me a notice saying, 'You've got 90 days to get out.' And I couldn't understand it. And continue paying rent. Whether or not you still live there, you need to pay your rent. I refused to leave because I could see what they were doing to the people of New Zealand. I could see them making them homeless. And I didn't do what they said I was doing, and,... yeah, I stayed. And so when you did finally leave, did they help you with a house again? Not them. The ones from Wellington did. I got letters in between saying that I was suspended for a year. Then I got phone calls saying they could house me in another part of New Zealand ` like Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Waikato. I said, 'Sorry, I'm from Taranaki. I'm staying.' And so they left it at that, and that's when I got a lawyer to help me through the process. What do you think the lawyer has helped with? Well, we're in court at the moment against Housing New Zealand. We're going into our second year. And so once they had been through the house, what else did they say to you? That we would be getting evicted in the next 90 days. What was that like? Heart-breaking. Sad. I was just, you know, helpless. Couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything cos I was only still a kid. How old were you? I was only 15. Losing your homestead ` no one wants to lose a homestead. Even though you don't own it, you know, but you know the house belongs to you. Someone else may own it, but just knowing that you've had a roof over your head for so many years. What did you do when you were told that you've got 90 days to get out? Broke down and locked myself away for a little bit. Cos I felt useless. I felt powerless. I lost my mana. Because all my babies seen was Mum... Mum always looks after us. Mum always keeps happy, stays happy, and this just really ruined me. It really ruined me because I didn't ask for this; I asked you to help me. He paku whakata te haere ake nei. When we come back, we look at the aftermath of the Housing New Zealand meth testing fiasco. Ka hoki mai tatou akuanei. Auraki mai ano. In our last part, Damian Poto, Belinda Riritahi and Donna McGuigan talk about the aftermath of the flawed meth testing of their Housing New Zealand homes. Kia matakitaki tatou. Where did you go? I would be homeless, live on the street. You name it. My sister has two kids, you know, so I couldn't put any stress on my sister. My older sister was going through a lot of emotions at the time. So I was, you know, quite depressed, emotional, I couldn't really do anything. So all I could do was just get back on my feet. How did you? How did you survive? Well, at the end of the day, everyone has to do what they gotta do. I've done it all ` seen it or done it, you know, from breaking and entering, burglary. I paid the price, done the price, you know. And it was time to move forward out of that. That's how I was surviving. As I said, I hid myself away. I tried not to tell many people because I was ashamed. And did they offer you any options in terms of finding more accommodation for you and your babies? I said to her, 'What am I supposed to do?' Her attitude was pretty much, 'I don't care. 'You get out.' (SNIFFS) And also, she had put it on me and she goes, 'Oh, and by the way, 'I thought I'd tell you that you've been suspended from applying for any Housing New Zealand house 'for 12 months as from today. 'And I'm gonna blacklist you.' I said, 'What's blacklisting?' Can't get a house anywhere because she's put me out as a bad person. Everyone's gonna know that I'm a meth person, and I'm not. I'm not. (SNIFFLES) I had to go to my doctor. They put me on antidepressants. It was the thought of going nowhere. My animals, I love my animals, and they had` you know, it was my home. It's where the kids came and played and we had pools and I'd decorate out the bedrooms for them. I mean, I wouldn't decorate out the bedrooms if I knew it was like that. When Housing New Zealand kicked me out, Child, Youth and Family found out. And they tried to take my kids off me. What did they say? Because I was living in a contaminated home. So I had a visit from a Child, Youth and Family worker. And she had been given the heads up from Housing New Zealand that I have recently tested positive for methamphetamine in my home, and now they're concerned about the kids' safety. And she said to me, 'There is an option.' I said, 'What's the option?' She said, 'Prove to us that you're not on.' And I said, 'What, you want blood? You want swabs?' She goes, 'The best is your hair.' So I just grabbed the centre of my hair as far as I could, close to my scalp, and I cut it. And I gave it to her straight away and I said, 'Test it, please.' And she did test it. Everything came back negative. So they didn't take my babies. Did Housing New Zealand or anyone come and try and help you because you were a minor, you were a child at 15? They never thought of those kind of things. They only spoke to the tenant of the house, but they did not know that there was a sick child in the house at the time. And that sick child was me. I was basically, you know, a child that had to do my health on my own, my well-being. What are your health issues? Um, I have` I'm a Heart Foundation child. Um, I've had two leaky valves, mechanical valve replacement. I have a pacemaker. Um, I've been sick since I was young, 6 years old. You would have been at Starship at some of those times, having check-ups and things. Did they know that you were homeless? They knew nothing about it. None of my specialists knew that I was homeless, that I had nothing. I just had the clothes that were on me. When you get your bits of paper, they tell you that all your furniture's contaminated. So I threw away everything. I left everything in my house, right down to my kids' shoes and clothes. How much do you think it was worth, your possessions? I can't even put a price on it. My baby had to leave a lot of her sentimental things in the house because I was worried that it was contaminated. We had our bedroom-ware, we had lounge suites, um... I'm a chef and I had to leave all my cheffing stuff in there. I didn't even wanna take my cooking stuff out cos I was scared it was tainted. We just left with the clothes on our back and we walked out. We never looked back again. Can you put a value on your possessions that you had to throw away? Well, probably about 6000, 7000. I threw them away ` beds, everything. Anything that was material, I threw them all away. And when I left, I just left with my boxes. I was just happy to be gone from that house cos my daughter was pregnant, and I wouldn't let her come to my house. Even after my moko was born, they couldn't come and see me cos I didn't want them coming in there. So when you apply for private rentals, what do they say to you? Um... Well, you just fill out that form and you just wish and hope for the best, I guess, and they say they'll ring you back if there's anything. I've never really been` And I know there's been rentals out there. But no one's ever rang me back, no. Why do you think they...? I believe that lady's gone and targeted me and put me on as a blacklisted tenant. Eg, meth. Which is not true. I mean, I did all the tests and everything. What more can you get from me? What do you wanna say to Housing New Zealand? Because it was you that went to ask for help. You really hurt me. You knew that that was wrong. You knew it. I tried to work with you. Youse didn't have to target families like that. You need to start listening. (SNIFFS) Use your fullas' taringas, man. Oh, what I'd like to say, you know, is they should ask the family instead of flipping the page and going straight from what other people say from the media side of things to their side of things, you know. Because there's always two sides to every story. You can't just always take the one. These were innocent childs in the house, and still never gave us a house or another opportunity for a sick child, you know? It's just really sad. Like, you need to get in there and go know your tenants. Don't know them through a name and a number and a date of birth. You gotta go and know them. That way, you got an understanding of who you've actually got in your rental properties. What are you wanting from Housing New Zealand? I want them to apologise. It was very stressful knowing that you've got to get out and you've got nowhere to go and Housing Corporation aren't gonna give you another house. You've gotta go find a house worth $350. And when you're on your own and getting the minimal benefit, you can't pay for that. Do you want an apology? Yeah, I would like an apology. Not just to me, to my whole family, the people that got kicked out for innocent things. I just wanna do this for everyone that suffered. I'm not the only one that's feeling this way. I know there's plenty of mums out there and dads and nannies and koros and aunties and uncles that have been through the same trauma. And it was senseless, at the end of the day. There was no need for all that stress. But no one's gonna pick up the pieces, the stress you had to go through. No one's gonna pick up your kids' pain. No one's gonna say sorry to your babies. Especially Housing New Zealand. Since Housing New Zealand has been doing the meth testing and fitting out new houses and things, they've spent around about $100 million. You know, I'm interested in how you feel about that. It's terrible. That money was just a waste of money. That money could've been put into other things. Yeah, I was quite shocked. I had to watch TV last week or the week before and watch that person say that they'd finally come to a decision that there was nothing wrong with the houses. Well, the $100 million should've went to the people that suffered and that got kicked out of their house. They were innocent people. Should've went to sick people. Could've done a lot of things for my family. Even though the government has made an apology to the people, I reckon that the area managers of those towns should go out and apologise to the people. Cos they treated us` They labelled us, they treated us bad. It was very stressful. Do you think that Housing New Zealand should compensate you for those things? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I don't care about material, furniture ` that's nothing. That's replaceable. But the pain and the suffering and all the long nights that I've had to sit up and think about it and have it in my head, you can't pay that back. You can't take that back or tell me everything's gonna be all right. Because it wasn't all right at that time. But, yeah, I believe that they should. Sorry's not gonna do anything. Belinda, Donna and Damian have never faced criminal charges in relation to the methamphetamine residue found in their homes. In a statement from Housing New Zealand, its chief executive, Andrew McKenzie, says... Hei tera wiki i runga i a Te Hui. A former Housing New Zealand tenant opens up about meth, the drug which saw her lose her home, her hope and nearly her life. Didn't feel like I was worth it any more. Poto Kingi was a vulnerable tenant who needed help. Instead, she got turned out on the street. I slept outside the Mission with everybody else. Addictions are like a disease, really. You can't stop. You gotta have the willpower to stop. Not many people can do that. But now she's clean, and she's helping others to get a roof over their head. Now I work with the City Mission as the chairman of the homeless committee. If anything, I would've rather have received help than have to have done it on my own. Kua hikina Te Hui mo tenei ra. Newshub Nation is next. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. Captions by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho.