I Cannot Afford The Current Crisis; Let Alone Prepare For a Future One

Abstract

<p>This research aims to understand the experiences of earthquake preparedness of low- income students who rent in Wellington City, Aotearoa New Zealand. Wellington City sits atop a number of earthquake fault lines, with it expected that a large-scale earthquake, that would impact Wellington City, has a 10-60% chance of occurring in the next decade. Concurrently, Wellington City's unstable housing market is raising the cost of living, significantly impacting low-income tertiary students. This puts many low-income students in a position where they cannot afford basic living needs, so they rent unhealthy and unsafe houses. As a result, students experience social exclusion because they are unable to fully participate in life-sustaining actions, such as disaster preparedness; therefore, are more likely to experience negative physical and psychological health and well-being implications. Eight photo elicitation semi-structured interviews were conducted with low-income students and analysed using narrative analysis techniques. The findings suggest that low-income students were unprepared for earthquakes due to power imbalances between renters and landlords, financial limitations, a lack of dwelling space, and being newly independent. Low-income students also lacked knowledge about renting rights and earthquake preparation. This research offers reasoning for why students need to be considered as an at-risk group in disaster preparedness, with the suggestion that future research continues to identify how to increase disaster preparedness for low-income students.</p>