Many mobile home applicants are solo parents, often mothers, where a safe, warm, dry and affordable place for them and their children is a life-saver. And, if they can opt for the rent with option to purchase at the end of their lease, it gives them the ability to build equity for a down payment on a home and build their credit rating.

But who stands in their way? Their council. If they ring the council, a nightmare begins. Council tells them their mobile home is a building and they must apply for resource consent and building consent. Costs of $25,000 are not unusual.

The council is wrong, they are not buildings, not structures, but the system is not about enabling the poor, weak & vulnerable to provide for their wellbeing. Only the affluent, paying consultants and lawyers, get their way. Of course, council does not see it that way, it says it is protecting health and safety. As Dee Hock describes it, it’s due to “organizations unable to achieve the purpose for which they were created, yet continuing to exist as they devour resources, demean the human spirit, and destroy the environment.”

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