In early March 2023, a group of researchers, communicators and managers convened for a day of training delivered by The Workshop – a small narrative research and strategy organisation. Many in the room had been working on healthy homes research and communication for decades. We were there because there is abundant evidence that warm, dry homes are a fundamental determinant of individual and collective wellbeing as well as a low-carbon future.
We also know that the technologies, policies and approaches needed to improve Aotearoa New Zealand’s current poor standing in home health are available and proven. Despite this, the changes needed in policy, resourcing and practice to make this happen are happening very slowly, if at all.
Narrative research shows us that how people talk about issues – our narratives – can change how others think and act. The Workshop was engaged by Wellington Regional Healthy Housing Group (WRHHG) to identify more-helpful ways of talking about home health to deepen the public conversation and demonstrate support for changes that will make the biggest difference in our homes and across our sector.
The research team
The 1-day training is one element of a 3-year Healthy Homes Narrative Communication Action Research project led by WRHHG. The project is funded via the BRANZ Building Research Levy and Todd Foundation and draws on the resources of WRHHG member organisations implementing the action part of the equation. The research team brings together experts from The Workshop and He Kāinga Oranga (the Housing and Health Research Programme, University of Otago).
Action research
The project targets systems and behaviour change for improved performance of residential buildings by changing the way we communicate about the relationship between buildings and wellbeing. It will help the building industry to provide warmer, drier buildings for New Zealanders by creating an enabling environment where the broad New Zealand public value warmer, drier homes for all, and understand and support the policy and regulatory settings needed to make these financially, technically and politically possible.
A first step in the research programme – a Healthy Homes Narrative Survey – was conducted in July to October 2022 with a sample of 104 people from the general public. The survey explored how people talk about the relationship between the physical home and health/wellbeing – how they think about who is responsible for keeping or making homes healthy and how people talk about healthy homes through lived experience and identity.
What the survey found
The survey indicated a widespread awareness of the impact of a physical home on holistic and collective wellbeing.
Respondents recognised the importance of a warm and dry home in supporting physical health – including conditions like asthma – but also talked about the stress of living in a cold or damp home and the impact on social wellbeing and dignity. The language used to talk about homes was often emotive and reflected a holistic sense of wellbeing (or lack of wellbeing). Responses include ‘our homes are our stability for our families’, ‘our safe haven’ and ‘sanctuary’. A lack of warmth and dryness is experienced as ‘emotional[ly] draining’ and ‘[doesn’t] feel like home’.
Most respondents (77.5%) either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, ‘On average homes in New Zealand are not very warm and dry by international standards’. Text answers demonstrated that the age of New Zealand houses, cold temperatures and damp climate, and poor-quality building materials were perceived as causal factors in this.
Previous research has demonstrated that most Kiwis care a lot about the wellbeing of their fellow humans even though narratives dominant in media and politics often suggest otherwise. Our survey results were consistent with this – 88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, ‘As a nation we need to make sure everyone in New Zealand has a comfortable, warm and dry home including by having appropriate legislation’. Most respondents believed responsibility for ensuring home health lay primarily or largely with government. The findings demonstrate a sense of collective responsibility and an awareness of legislative change as a viable pathway to achieve comfortable, warm and dry homes.
The experience (or lack) of choice and agency around living in a healthy home was a recurring theme. Particularly, reduced choice due to affordability (of what/how to buy, rent, renovate or maintain) was talked about across different ethnicities and by renters, homeowners and landlords. However, renters’ responses more often and more forcefully expressed lack of choice and agency.
Statistics and research consistently demonstrate a much greater likelihood of Māori and Pasifika people to be living in unhealthy homes and to experience less choice in where they live. The survey finding that Māori respondents were less likely than people of other ethnicities to trust or access support from central and (to a lesser degree) local government in relation to improving home health can help inform thinking about how to ensure support for home health is equitably available.
Next steps
Drawing on findings from the survey along with other research, a WRHHG communications group has engaged with The Workshop to develop evidence-based messages to deepen understanding and inspire action. These messages and the narratives for change approach broadly will be tested across a range of communications channels and activities of WRHHG members and allies in three iterative action-research cycles over 2023–2025.
The action research component will track uptake and impact of the approach through the three research cycles to refine messages and tactics and produce tested communications tools and resources for public use.
Together, we will create a future in which warm, dry and comfortable homes enable all New Zealanders to contribute, connect and thrive.
For more information about this project or to get the Healthy Homes Narratives Survey (2022) report, contact Amanda.Scothern@sustaintrust.org.nz