Hawke's Bay housing crisis: Even Central Hawke's Bay is suffering as leaders ask Govt for help

Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker says the community needs urgent transitional housing. Photo / File

Central Hawke's Bay leaders are asking the government to help them with social housing in the community.

Council leaders say proportionately just as many families are affected by housing struggles in Central Hawke's Bay as in Napier and Hastings.

Mayor Alex Walker said the first step was urgent, temporary housing.

"What we need in the first instance is quite quickly, some access to houses that can be put on the ground really quickly, to get as to an emergency and transitional housing space," Walker said.

At least 38 families are affected by homelessness in Central Hawke's Bay.

With a lack of emergency and transition housing in the district, these families can be relocated out of the area.

"What we're dealing with here is a confronting number of families who are struggling to find local accommodation and face the real possibility of needing to relocate out of the district.

"The result is people being disconnected from whanau and local support networks, and children potentially having to move schools so they can be rehoused in larger cities like Napier and Hastings.

"This also has a direct impact on the small communities that these people belong
to.

"This is not a crisis which is in isolation of each district in the region, this is a crisis which reaches all corners of our region."

She said the problem had been noticeably getting worse in the last three years.

"It has been growing quickly, growing quite quickly, in that time."

She said there also needed to be a more long term discussion about what the provision of social housing looks like in Central Hawke's Bay.

"What the role government, our council, is, what the role of our local iwi is, and potentially new community housing providers, what that looks like."

Like many councils across New Zealand, Central Hawke's Bay has financial constraints when it comes to providing social housing.

Currently, councils collect the majority of their funds through rates, and CHB has a small rateable base.

"You have to be able to work within your financial constraints and we have large financial constraints.

"We really have to look at where the government has to step up and play their role in this."

She said in the scale of the national housing crisis it is very easy for smaller communities, like Central Hawke's Bay, to fall under the radar.

Central Hawke's Bay councillor Kelly Annand said the problem will not be an overnight fix.

"We have actively connected government agencies with community housing providers and groups, and identified properties for purchase and new builds, but still too many families are faced with homelessness in our district.

"We know our community, we know its needs and we are working on a mixed model of solutions.

"We invite central government to partner with us to implement this model for short, medium and long solutions."