Jenni Schreuder and her cat Bobby in her Vevian Place flat.
Photo: LDR / Chloe Ranford
But that money is for her funeral.
Schreuder, 67, lives in a one-bedroom council flat in central Blenheim. A report presented to the Marlborough District Council last week suggested it might need to increase its senior housing rent by about 35 percent, to stay in line with its own policy of charging 80 percent of the current market rate.
That would be $66 a week more for a one-bedroom unit, and $78 a week more for a two-bedroom unit. I would have nothing left of my pension, Schreuder said. I would have to start penny-pinching. I wouldn t be able to use my car as often.
Chloe Ranford Local Democracy Reporter08:53, May 05 2021
Brya Ingram
Jenni Schreuder says the rent increases put forward in a council report last week would be impossible for many senior housing tenants to pay.
Marlborough pensioner Jenni Schreuder, 67, is not able to ask for help paying her rent because she has more than $10,000 in her bank account. But that money is for her funeral. Schreuder lives in a one-bedroom council flat in central Blenheim. A report presented to the Marlborough District Council last week suggested it might need to increase its senior housing rent by about 35 per cent, to stay in line with its own policy of charging 80 per cent of the current market rate.