Privacy

You may choose to voluntarily provide personal information through this website (e.g. in the feedback form or when subscribing to news and updates). This information may be viewable by site administrators, HUD staff (as appropriate) and third-party contractors who may administer or work on the site.

When you subscribe to one of our alerts or newsletters, the details you provide may be stored in a secure third-party database (e.g. Campaign Monitor). You will be asked to provide your name and email address so we can send you future electronic newsletters. When you unsubscribe to our alert or newsletter, your details will be deleted from the database.

HUD may ask or require you to provide some personal information when you complete an online form (e.g. the site feedback form or when subscribing to news or updates).

If you wish to apply for a job with us, you will be required to register your details with us in order to create an account, maintain a profile so we can match your skills and preferences against upcoming positions, apply for positions, sign up for and receive alerts, and manage any applications.

When you provide personal information unless otherwise indicated it will be held by HUD. It may be stored or accessed on behalf of HUD by authorised third parties (such as third-party contractors) to the extent that is necessary, for example for them to administer or work on the site. We will store and keep your personal information secure in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and any agents will be subject to HUD information security and privacy requirements.

HUD will generally only use personal information provided to us through this website for the purpose you provided it (e.g. to administer, evaluate and improve the site, to improve our services, or to action or respond to the information provided). We may also use personal information provided to us through this website for other reasons permitted under the Privacy Act (e.g. with your consent, for a directly related purpose, or where the law permits or requires it).

HUD will generally not share personal information that is provided or collected through this website unless it is necessary to do so for the purpose for which you gave us the information (e.g. to investigate a complaint) or where you consent. HUD will not otherwise disclose personal information provided or collected through this website unless required or otherwise permitted by law (e.g. under the Official Information Act 1982).

HUD will only retain personal information as long as it is required for the purposes for which the information has been collected.

Where any information provided (which may include personal information) to or through this site constitute public records, it will be retained to the extent required by the Public Records Act 2005.

HUD websites have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. In order to maintain the cybersecurity of HUD systems and information, HUD systems are subject to ongoing monitoring (including activity logging), analysis and auditing. We may use information about your use of our websites and other IT systems to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on these systems or to resolve such events. We may use this information even if you are not involved in such activity. HUD may utilise services from one or more 3rd party suppliers to monitor or maintain the cybersecurity of its systems and information. These 3rd party suppliers will have access to monitoring and logging information as well as information processed on HUD websites and other IT systems.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• find out from us whether we hold personal information about you
• access that information; and, if applicable
• request corrections to that information

If HUD has a good reason for refusing a request for correction, you are entitled to request that a statement be attached to the information of the correction that was sought but not made.

If you want to check personal information that we hold, please write to:
Privacy Officer
Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga - Ministry of Housing and Urban Development
PO Box 82
Wellington 6140.

You can also email: privacy@hud.govt.nz

For more information on the privacy laws in New Zealand and contact details for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, please visit the Privacy Commissioner's website(external link)(external link).

We may use cookies to gather data about trends in website usage using a tool called Google Analytics. This data will be viewable by website administrators and certain other HUD staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies. This information is aggregated and it does not identify you personally.

Browser or ‘web’ cookies are small text files that are sent by a website and stored on your computer's hard drive to collect information about how you browse the website.

Cookies are used to:

• measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
• remember the notifications you’ve seen so that we don’t show them to you again

You can read Google’s privacy statement, and access a Google Analytics opt-out tool, at the Google Privacy Centre.

You can manually disable cookies at any time - check your browser's 'Help' to find out how (disabling cookies will not affect your ability to use this website).

Data collected may include:

• your IP address
• the search terms you used
• the pages you accessed on our Site and the links you clicked on
• the date and time you visited the site
• the referring site (if any) from which you clicked to reach this site
• the device you used to access the site
• your operating system (e.g., Windows XP, Mac OS X)
• the type of web browser you use (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox)
• other things like your screen resolution, the release of your installed Flash version and the language setting of your browser.

We regularly review the personal information we ask housing providers to share with us, to ensure that we really need it. The information we collect from housing providers varies slightly according to the housing programme the client is using. However, for most programmes, HUD will need to collect the following information about clients:

• Information about the individual or whānau being supported, this includes:
  • Full name
  • Social Welfare Number, if a client is using services that require us to communicate with MSD about them
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Household composition
  • Iwi/Hapu
• Information about the service the individual or whānau are receiving, this includes:
  • Information about a client’s referral to a housing programme
  • The dates a client starts and ends in the service
  • Information about a client’s exit from the service
• Programme specific information, which may include:
  • The level and type of service a client receives
  • Information on programme specific milestones

We use identifiable personal information about clients to manage our operational functions in relation to housing programmes, including managing service funding, housing stock availability, housing stock occupancy rates, damage and repairs, service complaints, health and safety, and housing provider performance.

We also use de-identified personal for research and evaluation purposes. To inform programme development and improvement, meet the research objectives of the Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan 2020-2023, and set housing and urban development policy, we need to be able to build a picture of the ways clients use the programmes and why, including:

• How programme use differs according to client demographics, such as age, gender or ethnicity, including proportions of such groups within a programme.
• How programme use differs according to region.
• The nature of clients requiring support, including whether they are individuals or families.
• Client pathways into and out of programmes, to better inform prevention measures and the effective delivery of complementary wraparound services.
• Which services clients use at what times, and how these might interrelate.
• The nature of problems experienced by clients within the programmes, including duration of homelessness, number of episodes of homelessness, and reasons for referral into a programme.
• The nature of risk factors experienced by clients, such as drug and alcohol addiction, mental health, and family violence, and the impact these might have on their experience of a programme or its success.

Sometimes, we might need to disclose personal information about a client to a housing provider, MSD, or another agency in order to manage service issues or complaints. However, in most cases, the information we share is already held by the recipient.

We do not disclose personal information in any other ways. We make sure personal information is de-identified or anonymised before we make it available for research and evaluation, to ensure that identifiable information about clients is never shared in research outputs.

We know that ensuring personal information is safe and secure is critical to maintaining client trust in NZ’s housing system. We take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information we collect and hold, at all stages in the information lifecycle. We store personal information in secure systems, and we have implemented role-based access controls to ensure that access to identifiable personal information is strictly limited to those who need it.

We have developed a Disposal Authority, which has been approved by Archives New Zealand, to ensure that we retain personal information only for as long as we need it, and that we dispose of the information safely.

People have the right to ask us whether we hold personal information about them, ask for a copy of that information, and ask us to correct the information if they believe it is inaccurate.

To make a personal information request, or to find out more about HUD’s privacy practices, please write to:

Privacy Officer
Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development
PO Box 82
Wellington 6140

You can also email: privacy@hud.govt.nz