Blaze that left at least six dead comes amid severe housing shortage in the New Zealand capital
ours after firefighters finally put out the blaze, smoke was still rising from the roof of the Loafers Lodge in, and the smell of burning remained. Firefighters guided a drone through the clear skies, trying to calculate the extent of the building’s collapse, while the bodies of at least six people lay inside the hostel’s walls, unable to be retrieved.
Homelessness charities in the city have confirmed they had at least 40 clients registered to the address, which had acted as housing for highly vulnerable people. “It was used for people who needed accommodation that couldn’t otherwise find it or afford it – people with disabilities, physical, psychological,” she said. “People that have had poor mobility … people on emergency housing lists”.
“What kind of country are we that we allow this kind of thing to happen?” said Green party leader James Shaw, speaking to parliament on Tuesday afternoon. “What kind of country are we where those people have so few options in life, but to live in substandard accommodation, with a reasonable chance of lethality?”Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
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