Will Your Mum Have to Couch-Surf in Her Old Age?

A stream of media articles these past few weeks – including my own (i.e. the first in this Special Feature Series on Seniors Struggles and the interview I did with Grey Power that led to it ) – have begun highlighting what, in my most recent coverage, I explained was a phenomenon being catalysed by the entry of the Baby Boomer generation’s tail end into its retirement years.

While that long-recognised demographic bulge has caused major impacts as it has moved through each new stage of life, never before has there been the worrying convergence of challenges it is now having to face.

Those challenges all, needless to say, relate to economic trends - some directly, some a bit more indirectly..

The impacts of each of those trends in their own right are challenging enough for anyone . . . but they are far exacerbated in terms of their impact on those leaving their earning years behind them and entering into what, for most people, are the somewhat financially leaner years of retirement.

The cost-of-living crisis (not only food, of course, but skyrocketing electricity prices and unprecedented rates increases) is not looking at easing by any substantial measure any time soon. Reportedly, we’ve seen 12-month rises in insurance costs in the vicinity of an average 19.8%, transport-related costs an average 12.9%, and property rates increases of an average 9.7%. (As an aside on the note of Council rates, TV1 recently interviewed two Wairarapa Martinborough residents who had become "accidental advocates" for widowers, retirees, pensioners finding the local Council’s rate increases untenable.)

An Unprecedented Convergence of Trends

The convergence of this cost-of-living crisis, with an all-time-high housing supply crisis, is exacting a terrible toll on those on incomes which are both low and fixed. Like new retirees and those further up in years . . . a societal cohort that, according to the 2018 census results, is on the increase from what was then 819,600 people aged 65 years and over to an estimated 1.2 million by 2034.

My recent interview with Grey Power’s new National President (“Do we pay the rates, heat a room, or have a proper meal this week?”), outlined the severity and the shameful deprivation in which many Kiwi seniors are now living.

None, though, live in greater indignity and deprivation than those who are no longer able to afford to maintain their own homes (many forced to sell because of now-unachievable Council rates), or worse still, are in the rental market but haven’t been able to find affordable accommodation there.

And that, in its own right, is a cohort with no small expected increase. The Office of the Retirement Commissioner estimates by that 2048 the number of over 65s renting will double, and will sit at a by-then 600,000+ pensioners. At the same time, the Commission’s research (based on interviews with more than 700 landlords) shows the private market will be unable to meet basic supply demands, most especially in the area of accessible rentals.

In short, the bald facts are – says the Retirement Commissioner – that the private rental market will not be able to keep up with the demand for rental housing for the ever-increasing number of pensioners who will need affordable and accessible homes over the coming decades.

Compounding that, according to the Commissioner, one-third of New Zealanders who have a disability are in that 65+ age group: “We want people to remain in their own homes and their established communities, but unless we have an age-friendly private rental sector, that’s not going to be achievable. Traditionally, New Zealanders reaching the age of 65 will have paid out their mortgages and be able to use the equity in it to modify their home for accessibility.

“But that reality is gone."

The Commissioner reported that few landlords had previously had much experience with older tenants, with almost half never having had a tenant over 65 years of age.

That means not only that very few rentals have accessibility modifications, but also that landlords are not accustomed to dealing with costs related to providing them – notwithstanding the fact that many landlords had positive attitudes with regard to older tenants and, in principle, to supporting their needs.

'Just Here for the Heat & the Eats'

One Parliamentarian with a direct and daily view into the issue is Opposition Spokesperson for Seniors, Ingrid Leary.

Leary is also the Member of Parliament for Taieri, one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged and oldest demographic groups in New Zealand.

She says that, in general, low-income areas “are very transient, because there’s a high number of renters and seniors.

“We have people come to events at our Labour Party rooms or to community group events, and they openly admit that they’ve come because they knew we’d have the heaters on and they’d be warm for as long as they were here, and if they’re lucky there will be something to eat as well.

“I know that hardly sounds like New Zealand, does it? But it’s REAL. It’s honestly real. It’s what’s happening out there.

“The people in my electorate are pretty resilient,” says Leary. “It’s never been a wealthy area. But I’ve had seniors ring me traumatised about whether there will be further cuts, and whether they should stay in bed for the day to save getting up and having to heat the house. And because they don’t want to go out the front door because they’ll have to spend money on transport and other living costs.

“And a senior who is forced to hole up in their bed all day for no other reason than to save money, is experiencing poor nutrition, poor health outcomes, social isolation . . . the list goes on.

“So the impacts are far reaching and incredibly negative.”

Beyond Supply Issues & Into the Area of Homelessness

Nowhere to go is one issue. But nowhere to live is an increasing issue, too.

“When I’ve been door-knocking, I’ve had some really heartbreaking conversations with older people who face the very real prospect of having to sell their house or worse still, a mortgagee sale, due to the impact of increases in rates.

“It’s infuriating, because these rates increases could have been minimised had Labour’s Affordable Water proposals not been subject to disingenuous re-framing,” Leary says.

“So they have, or they will, find themselves renters at this late stage of life. And with the level rents are at, even down in my electorate, they’re unable to find accommodation they can afford.”

In her electorate, she’s seen this exacerbated by the “No-Fault Tenancy” legislation brought in by the new Government. She says this incentivises landlords to evict existing tenants if they feel they can’t get a rent rise out of them . . . which, she says, landlords have the confidence to do, given the poor supply of housing.

“To boot, there’s a bias in the rental market against older people. And also, many rentals are larger houses. And how can a senior person fill up the other rooms in a house? A flatmate situation is often not appropriate for a senior.”

Women Particularly Vulnerable

She’s even more viscerally concerned about the number of calls for help that her electorate office is fielding from women on their own, over 65.

“It would seem that this is particularly an issue for women; for some reason. There’s a particularly strong bias against women in the older age group.

“Many older women don’t have a nest egg to rely on at all. It’s well-evidenced that many come into retirement with a smaller Kiwi Saver, both because of pay inequities and because of time taken out of their work life to raise children.

“And some are single, or single again."

So what are they doing?

Horrifyingly, some are “couch-surfing”.

“They’re living with a friend for a few weeks, trying not to overstay their welcome, before moving on to another friend, and spending a lot of that ‘grace time’ trying to find more permanent options or yet another benevolent friend who will accommodate them.

“This all comes with a LOT of stigma for these women. They don’t want people to know that they are couch-surfing or that they are in insecure accommodation, so they find it difficult to ask for help. (They also often don’t know what their benefit-related entitlements are, which exacerbates their already traumatising situation.)

“And with that unfair burden of shame, can easily come resultant mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

“It’s incredibly stressful to not know from day to day, how long they can stay under the current roof that is kindly but temporarily accommodating them."

Leary says many seniors end up living with relatives (if they have them).

"That isn’t always a great thing, and it’s particularly not good when it’s forced through adversity rather than being a matter of choice. It puts a strain on familial relationships. As well, there might simply not be enough room in the house for all its occupants.”

That whole situation, she points out, has further potential ramifications, in that it can set the scene for elder abuse.

“It’s BAD,” stresses Leary. “We’ve never really thought of this being a reality in New Zealand. But it has become one, and it’s going to get worse unless solutions are identified and found. And FAST.”

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MASSEY VETS FALSIFY RECORDS: POLICE REPORT FILED

by Jordan Kelly • 27 February 2026

Readers following the coverage of my attempts to get to the bottom of what happened to my beloved little papillon, Harry, with whom I was extraordinarily closely bonded, will know that: (A) The rot in Massey University’s Companion Animal “Hospital” (CAH) runs deep. (B) Honesty and transparency is not their policy. Denial, dismissal, stonewalling, legal threats and intimidation are. (C) Animals aren’t safe there, with cruelty embedded in “care”, and your property (as your pet legally is) not considered your property at all, as far as Massey, its CAH staff and management are concerned. Your pet is theirs ; to do with as they please, according to their mindset and their modus operandi. And if that involves catastrophic levels of unauthorised, contraindicated, convenience sedation to facilitate their use of your pet in monetised student video collections (including on private cell phones, and to which you will be given no access), this too, according to Massey, is its own God-given right and “best practice” Standard Operating Procedure. (D) “Informed Consent” has a very different meaning in the Massey playbook to that which is generally deemed its accepted definition. (E) “Accountability” is a foreign concept and not one with which they have any intention of becoming acquainted. (F) Laws – including those governing animal welfare, property conversion and more – are not only optional, in Massey’s case, they simply don’t apply. In fact, they appear blissfully ignorant of them according to my (and Harry's) experience. You know all that. You’ve read about it here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here and in most of my other now 30+ articles covering the numerous different sub-atrocities within the overall atrocity that was the demise and disposal of my precious little Harry. Actually, "atrocious" doesn't come anywhere near to being an adequate adjective. Despite having been a professional writer since I was 16 and having upwards of 25 published books under my belt, I don't actually have an adjective that's adequate for the pure evil that was perpetrated upon Harry . . . and, by extension, me . There is not one word or one phrase that can sufficiently convey the depth and breadth of the sheer, unadulterated wickedness that festers without restraint within the walls of Massey University's Companion Animal "Hospital". What you, my readers (or those of you not on Massey's massive legal team payroll) didn’t yet know – because I didn’t yet know – is that record and evidence tampering (which, for any other New Zealand citizen would attract jail time of up to 10 years under the Crimes Act 1961 Section 258 (Altering document with intent to deceive) or Section 260 (Falsifying registers) , and/or a $10,000 fine under the Privacy Act Section 212(2)(b) - appears also to be included in the “we’re exempt” culture of Massey and its veterinary “hospital” staff. Note to Readers: The above laws aren't some hypothetical, bottom-drawer, dusty old legal tracts in archaic library textbooks. They're real, "living" laws that apply to every individual in our country. And today, they are being made to apply to Dr Stephanie Rigg and her "colleagues" who falsified Harry's records to create a cover-up of what they did to him . . . and to me. I will, duly, see Dr Rigg and her associates in Court. Dissecting the Cover-Up: Massey’s Metadata of Deception But back to what readers do know for a moment: You’ll know that I’ve been in the battle of battles for the past two months to extract Harry’s full records (or anything approaching them) from Massey’s Legal and Governance department. HOWEVER . . . there was one thing I hadn’t known how to decipher that they actually had finally drip-fed to me. It was File Name: Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit) . I’ve been learning a lot about veterinary science, record-keeping, and law in general lately. Not because I wanted to. But because if you want to figure out how deep the rot really runs at Massey, you kind of have to. So I’ve learned a bit about how to decipher clinical metadata. Just e nough to realise that this Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit) is exactly where the digital fingerprints of a cover-up are hiding. Despite the fact that this document has as much redacted as it shows (probably more), with ALL staff names and positions blacked out, for example -I still found four distinct “smoking gun” entries in these otherwise heavily-redacted metadata logs. BIG. FAT. SMOKING. GUNS. that amounted to one undeniable overall conclusion: This document isn’t a clinical record so much as it’s a literal crime scene . There were already so many dodgy inconsistencies in the few items I'd managed to pull out of Massey to that point (as I've documented in various of my preceding articles). But this document is where, undeniably, the bodies are buried. You just need to know which clod of dirt to look under. Hidden in Plain Sight . . . In A Little Thing Called the Metadata (That the Average Pet Owner Wouldn't Even Know Existed ) There are four hidden but key findings demonstrating that the entire timeline of Harry’s “experience” in that hellhole were was orchestrated, and the sudden "neurological event/decline" exit strategy planned for him were a total fabrication. And that fabrication had a start time. (For this start time we will initially revert our focus back to Massey's previously-supplied "Clinical Summary" (in all its dodginess) . . . We will then lead from the immediately below into the afore-mentioned "Patient Change Log (Field-Level Audit)". Bear with me. I promise not to let this get boring). Well, one of two start times. Either: (1) The 8.38am disconnection of his (with, by-then, the TWO 750% overdoses of the renally contraindicated convenience sedative with which the "crying dog"-sensitive ICU staff had plied him overnight) now life-essential IV fluids (8.5 hours into the prescribed 24-hour protocol that they charged me for). And/or: (2) When the day shift ICU "vet" arrived at 9am and decided a THIRD 750% overdose would be a strategic way do deal with a clearly already massively overdosed little 3.8kg, 15-year-old, dehydrated dog. Now WHY would any vet take such a decision? Well, for legal purposes, of course (remembering that the Venerable Dean Jon Huxley and the obviously not- so-new-broom Vice-Chancellor Pierre Venter, have all the money in the public purse to pay their top-tier external legal counsel . . . and by gum, there are enough of the buggers, if this site's analytics are anything to be guided by), I will precede the following by stating that these are my conclusions, made on the basis of the collation and evaluation of the information before me. That said, what I know of my readers is this: You are no intellectual slouches. Feel free to let me know if you can come up with any other conclusion from the information (complete with now numerous "receipts") that I have thus far presented, most especially here and here , and most tellingly of all, in today's expose. R emember, though, I held the ultimate evidence in my arms at 6pm on December 1 . . . and, some 45 minutes later, I let them take it (safely, for them) away from me, just like Harry's (the literal body of evidence) life had just been taken from him. Little Numerals that Tell A BIG Story The plan for Harry's manufactured exit is not so much written into the records, as it is revealed by the tampering with the logs. They lay bare the lead vet’s apparent plan that his life would come to an abrupt end by the pre-scheduled time of (well, they couldn't quite get consistency in the logs regarding the exact minute, but by the absolute latest time of) 17:00 hours i.e. 5pm . . . assumedly, the end of the day shift on December 1. Just in time to mark him "Deceased" and seal off the records of this catastrophically overdosed patient, before the next shift came on, saw his records, and someone started asking the immediately necessary, and certainly appropriate, questions. And those questions would (0R SHOULD ) have included , but would certainly not have been limited to: How long has this dog been in this state? Why hasn't any rescue and remediation protocol been undertaken? Why was he given yet ANOTHER administration of 50mg of Gabapentin at 09:00 hours after the preceding two during night shift? Why is he disconnected from his IV fluids? Who approved that and why? (And if they knew he'd starred in a multi-video student film festival that morning): Was he taken out of his cage and handled in this state? When did he last drink? Was he given any food before he entered this near-comatose state? Does the owner know of the overdoses and the state he's in? Have you filled in an incident report? Have any emergency specialists been called in for advice? and, no doubt, many more questions. OR . . . maybe not. It depends if the rot in that ICU is fully immersive, or if it's concentrated on Dr Stephanie Rigg's day shift and the ICU shift staff of the preceding (November 30) night. But none of those questions could be asked and none of that could happen. The day shift - led by "Dr" Rigg ("Steffi") - wasn't about to let it happen. Thus, the pre-timestamped, just before end-of-shift, Time of Death entered into the "Euthanasia Authorisation" form that they had all queued up for me long before I ever arrived at that Godforsaken facility that fated December 1 afternoon.

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An Expert Contributed Commentary (FOR LATEST INVESTIGATION FINDINGS, GO HERE .)

Seniors Struggling Feature No. 2: Homelessness & the Elderly