In July this year the parents of a severely disabled teenager told Checkpoint they've been waiting seven years for a fully accessible state home, while their son suffers in cramped conditions and without dignity.
Nineteen-year-old Hami* has spastic quadriplegia. He cannot toilet or feed himself, struggles to speak, and is blind.
He needs to use a large wheelchair, and to get into bed or the bath he needs a hoist.
But he and his family were living for years in an old-style state house with no room for a hoist, and narrow hallways that his chair could barely fit through.
After sharing their story, the Ministry of Social Development looked at their case, and they finally have a new home, where Hami can be comfortable and his family can care well for him.
"It's really beautiful, whatever we want, everything is here," Hami's mum told Lisa Owen.
Everything is easy to do in their new home, she said.
It is a huge improvement after years of struggle in their old home, with walls scarred by the equipment which was too big to use properly.
Hami also has been injured, as his carers struggled to move him carefully in the small space.
"We have to be aware how he stretches his body, otherwise he can kick the wall," Latu, one of his carers, said.
Alastair Russell, the social worker who battled for the family to be moved to a fully wheelchair accessible house, said important equipment like the hoist was useless in the old house.
"It was just an ornament. In this house it's able to be used, he can safely be put into bed, taken out, taken to the shower.
"This house is designed for someone with a disability and for a family who cares about their sick child."
Hami's new room is spacious and light with an extra-wide door way. It also opens to smaller room where someone can sleep nearby if Hami is having a bad night
In the old house, lifting Hami without a hoist was too dangerous for his mother, so his father gave up paid work to care for him.
"[His] Mum's told me today that Dad's now looking at getting back into work next year," Alastair Russell said.
"The house has enabled them to have a quality of life and know that his son is safe when he's not at home."
The new home is a blessing for the family, after a seven-year wait. Hami's occupational therapist even wrote to MSD saying the old house was unsafe and unsuitable.
"It's completely outrageous, the only thing that tipped it over for this family was the intervention from Checkpoint," Russell said.
"The need is huge, and the government response is completely inadequate.
"The solution is to rip up fiscal responsibility and actually spend money on social housing. The free market can never deliver social housing that will meet the needs of people," he said.
Hami is obviously happy in his new home, his mum says.
"We can tell the difference."
*Hami’s name has been changed for privacy.
