New Kāinga Ora houses a 'game changer' for Gisborne: Woods

Gisborne Construction apprentice Matthew Pepere says he is enjoying the third year of his apprenticeship and appreciates working on 31 Kāinga Ora houses in Worsley Street, where “you know you are part of building a new street for families to come into”. Labour's housing spokeswoman Megan Woods was in Gisborne yesterday visiting the development. Picture by Liam Clayton

Labour's housing spokeswoman Megan Woods describes the near completion of 31 Kāinga Ora houses in Worsley Street-Matthews Road, Kaiti as an “absolute game changer”.

The new houses indicated the Government’s commitment to public housing, Ms Woods said yesterday at the building site.

The number of state houses had been going backwards in regional New Zealand for decades.

Ms Woods said 33 state houses had been “lost” in Gisborne in the decade before the election of the Government six years ago.

The Worsley Street build did not make up the deficit, but the Government was committed to building further public housing.

“We’ve got to keep the momentum going.”

The 31 homes are all single level and are a mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes and can house people with accessibility challenges.

Ms Woods said 82 houses had been built in Gisborne and another 296 were “in the pipeline being built”.

The region was known as one with “severe housing deprivation”.

The Government planned to build 21,000 houses by 2025, and the Prime Minister had announced another 6000 additional public and transitional housing places last Sunday, she said.

The Government had already built 13,000 houses across the country and over 4000 transitional houses.

One in six state houses had been built by the current government.

It was the biggest government house building programme since the 1957-1960 Labour Government led by Walter Nash.

Ms Woods thanked Kāinga Ora staff for their “hard mahi”.

“They are making a difference to lives.”

She also thanked Gisborne Construction.

Ms Woods said the company had been able to employ staff, including apprentices, because they had a steady stream of work.

The company had 35 staff working on site and 90 percent of material used was sourced locally.

More than 500 apprentices had been employed nationwide because of the Government’s housing and retrofitting programme.

List MP and Labour’s East Coast candidate Tāmati Coffey said the state housing programme was “why we got into politics”.

“It was to create places and spaces for whānau to grow their whānau.”

He was “a kid who grew up in a state house”.

“Lives  are changed when you have a roof over your head.”

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said new housing stock was much needed.

“There are so many whānau out there who do not have a nice, warm, dry house.

“We welcome this today.

“We look forward to many more homes being built in our region.”

Gisborne Construction manager Stu Buscke said the company employed 55 staff across electrical, civil, plumbing, painting and carpentry with five apprentices working at Worsley Street.

The houses would be handed over to Kāinga Ora in February, he said.

Kāinga Ora is partnering with developers like NZ Housing Group in Worsley Street to purchase the completed homes.

Gisborne Construction is the main contractor at the Worsley Street site.

The developer buys the land and builds the homes, which Kāinga Ora then purchases once the homes are ready to be occupied.

A Kāinga Ora spokeswoman said 157 of the homes in progress were contracted to be purchased from local developers.

That includes the 31 homes at the Worsley Street-Matthews Road site.

In addition, the feasibility of more than 100 new homes on redeveloped Kāinga Ora sites was currently being evaluated.

Any new development was subject to infrastructure capacity which was limited in areas, she said.

As of June 30, a total of 607 applicants were on the Housing Register in Gisborne.