A Far North Maori trust says families with loan arrears of just a few hundred dollars are losing their homes in mortgagee sales.
Kaitaia's He Korowai Trust says it is seeing several low income families a week who can't meet rising living costs and face foreclosure.
The trust says the average family is just $300 to $600 in arrears, but often by the time they seek help banks have added penalties and begun.
Trust manager Ricky Houghton says many of the mortgages were originally low interest Housing Corporation loans, which the Government sold on to Westpac in the 1990s.
Mr Houghton says the Korowai Trust has spent $15,000 in the past few weeks to save the homes of Far North families in financial distress.
Heavy caseload
Budgeting adviser Kathy Tulloch, who works for the Otangarei Trust in Whangarei, says her caseload of families facing mortgagee sales has doubled this year.
She says councils notify lenders if rates go unpaid for long enough, and that can trigger a mortgagee sale by the bank.
Ms Tulloch says she has managed to avert 25 mortgagee sales this year, but was unable to to save one home on Maori land which was trucked away and sold.
She says it is essential for people to seek help at the first sign of trouble with their mortgage.
Housing Minister Maryan Street says she has asked her officials to look into ways the Government could help.
' Wake-up' call for politicians
The Green Party says the mortgagee sales show the seriousness of the housing crisis and are a wake-up call for all political parties.
Housing spokesperson Sue Bradford says a growing number of forced sales in low-income areas shows people cannot cope with rising food, fuel and utility costs.
She says people who have struggled for years to keep their homes, are suddenly losing everything they have.
Ms Bradford says she is especially concerned about mortgagee sales triggered by unpaid rates.
She says that resembles land grabs of the past, when Maori whenua was seized on similar grounds.
