The impact of New Zealand housing on health has been talked about for decades. Whenever someone wants to make a point about a particular approach to building they wheel out asthma and respiratory stats. To date it would be hard for anyone with respiratory disease to believe that the (Building/Construction) Sector was genuinely concerned about building homes that keep occupants safe. Surely if the concern was genuine it would have been achieved by now. Money has long been a convenient truth, it allows the comfort of status-quo to prevail.

Relying on the State and its regulatory bodies to address/correct the problem is perhaps where the real issue resides. Asthma NZ see no value in pointing blame, being right is about as helpful as algebra is to a 5 year old. Many factors have contributed to the place in which we now find ourselves and not one sector on its own is going to address the problem. Asthma NZ’s commitment remains with our patients – 700,000 of them.

Seeing the Healthy Home Design Guide come together is encouraging. To see so many brilliant minds contribute to the development of one document is an important step in getting a consistent and united approach. Asthma NZ’s mission is a 50% reduction in asthma and COPD hospitalisation by 2029. With 87% of our patients living in housing unfit for human habitation we are counting on you to help us achieve this mission. For every year that we achieve this mission we will enable the Ministry of Health to spend half a billion dollars of savings on improving our health system so we all have access to the medications and treatments we need, if we need it.

“Nothing else matters when you can’t breathe”