7. PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) Link to this
to the Minister of Housing
What plans does the Government have to increase and improve State housing in Auckland?
Hon PHIL HEATLEY (Minister of Housing) Link to this
Today I am pleased to announce that over the next 5 years the Housing New Zealand Corporation will build or acquire up to 1,400 additional new homes in Auckland, and we will upgrade 14,500—14,500—existing properties, which is nearly half the current State housing stock in the region.
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga Link to this
How do these plans impact the Government’s commitment to work with third sector providers of social, affordable, and niche housing?
Currently a number of old, cold, and mouldy State homes are sited on large quarter acre sections in Auckland, and they have been for a decade. Where appropriate, the Housing New Zealand Corporation will subdivide these properties to provide a mix of new fit-for-purpose State housing, to work with the third sector to assist it to provide more social and niche housing, and also to increase the supply of land available for home buyers, including first-home buyers.
Rahui KateneWhat plans has the Government made to invest in more four-bedroom houses to better reflect the demographic being served in Auckland, which includes more larger Māori and Pacific Island whānau?
The State housing stock is overwhelmingly made up of three-bedroom homes, which is the wrong size to meet current need, as the member points out—that need is, basically, one and two-bedroom homes for people who are living alone but also homes with four or more bedrooms for large Māori and Pacific families. The Housing New Zealand Corporation will be building and acquiring homes of those sizes—absolutely. I have also asked the Social Housing Unit to partner with iwi and other third sector providers to provide adequately sized social housing across New Zealand and, of course, across Auckland.
Moana MackeyWhen he talks about community housing organisations taking over social housing from the Housing New Zealand Corporation—and, in the case of the Tāmaki Transformation Programme, providing 50 percent of the social housing, with the Housing New Zealand Corporation having the other 50 percent—will those community housing organisations be given the funding for the income-related rent subsidy so that the tenants in those properties do not see their rents going up as he pushes them from a Housing New Zealand Corporation property, where they pay only 25 percent of their income to a community housing sector property where the sector cannot afford to provide that same level of subsidy?
I never said a bunch of those things. I said that in places like Tāmaki, where there are large quarter acre sections, we will subdivide, building new State houses perhaps on one half of the section, and selling the other half to a community housing organisation or a first-home buyer to raise funds. That is what I said. On the issue of income-related rents, we have said to social housing providers that we do not intend to transfer income-related rents to them at this time. We may consider that at a later date. I would be interested to see, if Labour does that, where it would get the money from.
Carol BeaumontWhy are the residents of northern Glen Innes who are to be relocated not being given the opportunity to return to their current community once the redevelopment work has been completed, as was the case with the Ladies Mile and Kings Road developments?
That is usual across New Zealand when there is a State housing development. It has happened over a number of years, though under the previous Government there was very little redevelopment. Certainly, the option is often given to tenants to either move into alternative State housing permanently or relocate back. Often, they want to go to where they have been relocated because they have settled. Sometimes when they see the new State houses, they want to move back. Usually there is a bunch of options, and I would expect that would happen in this case.