Minister of Transport Simeon Brown and Acting Mayor of Auckland Desley Simpson talk to the media in Mt Eden. Video / NZ Herald
Work to replace homes on one of Napier’s longest-vacant former state housing sites is about to start in the next step of a programme that has seen the number of people on Government homes waiting lists in Hawke’s Bay slashed by as much as a quarter this year.
A state housing site in Bledisloe Rd, Napier, has been empty since since homes were demolished or removed more than a decade ago. Now it's ready for the building of new properties. Photo / Doug Laing
The latestMinistry of Social Development Housing Register statistics to the end of September show numbers have dropped 24.7% in Napier since December, 16.66% in Hastings, an average 18.43% in Hawke’s Bay from Wairoa to Tararua, and 13.5% nationwide, to generally the lowest levels since 2020.
In Napier, a sector of Bledisloe Rd opposite the Maraenui shopping centre, and between the intersections with Geddis and Longfellow avenues, has been empty since widespread state housing demolition and removals more than a decade ago.
While discussed with the community over the years, the first sign of movement has come with contractors PGC Constructors fencing off 19-25 Bledisloe Rd, where Government housing agency Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities (which succeeded Housing New Zealand in 2019) says eight two-bedroom homes and one of four bedrooms, all double-storey, will be built on land that previously had four houses built in the post-war baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the number of “public homes” increased by 4595 to 84,058 at the end of June, comprising 70,643 operated by Kāinga Ora and 13,413 by Community Housing Providers.
Kāinga Ora regional director East North Island – homes and communities Naomi Whitewood said it’s a “significant milestone” to have work under way on the “well-located” land after it had been vacant for a “number of years”.
“We now have 81 houses in construction or soon to be in the Maraenui and Onekawa area, and we look forward to whānau moving into these homes when they are completed in the first half of next year,” she said.
Kāinga Ora is continuing with assessments of other planned developments in line with the year-old Government direction around delivery of additional state housing and housing renewal.
“Our focus is on getting best value for money and looking at costs and plans of proposed projects and checking they still stack up financially,” she said.
Latest Ministry of Social Development Housing Register statistics show the number of applicants (eligible in need of a home) in Napier had dropped 24.7% in the past three quarters, from 717 at the end of last December to 540 at the end of September, the lowest since the 510 of December 2019 and compared with a peak of 801 at the end of March 2022.
Demolition of state housing continuing in Bledisloe Rd, Napier, early in 2015. Some sites have now been empty for more than 10 years. Photo / NZME
It comes at a time during which the number nationwide dropped from 25,389 to 21,957 this year, the lowest since the 21,417 of September 2020 and compared with a peak of 26,868 in March 2022.
Meanwhile, the number in Hastings has dropped from 702 to 585, the lowest since the 567 of June 2020 and the peak of 804 in March 2022. In Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay and Tararua totals have been mainly under 90 in each district, a total now reached in Wairoa in the latest statistics, its highest since September 2022 and impacted by the June flooding this year, on top of Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.
The total across the five districts from Wairoa to Tararua was 1302, which compared with 1596 at the end of last year, and a peak of 1827 in March 2022.
Kāinga Ora said that in the two major cities in the 12 months to the end of September, 316 people from the Housing Register were placed into Kāinga Ora social housing homes – 167 in Napier and 149 in Hastings. The 316 compares with 124 in the year to the end of September 2023 (55 in Napier and 69 in Hastings).
Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka said emergency housing became a “moral, social and financial catastrophe” under the 2017-2023 Labour-led governments.
He says his Government promised change and in April implemented a “Priority One” to accelerate moving people from emergency accommodation into social housing, shifting 726 households (including more than 1452 children) who “no longer live in unsuitable, dank motels”.
Opposition Labour housing spokesman and List MP Kieran McAnulty, who in the last term represented the Wairarapa electorate, including Central Hawke’s Bay, said Potaka and Minister of Housing Chris Bishop were “all talk on public housing”.
“Recently released information from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development shows two reasons emergency housing numbers are reducing,” he said.
“More people moving into public homes that were funded by Labour and this Government’s tightening of the rules restricting people from accessing emergency housing in the first place.”
He said the new Government had only funded 750 places through Community Housing Providers and was stopping Kāinga Ora from building any more new homes from July next year.
“What New Zealanders will see from these moves are more people living in cars and homelessness increasing,” he said.
“It’s as simple as that. This is just National returning to type. We can’t forget the last National Government ended up with 1500 fewer [Housing NZ and community provider] public homes than it started with and sucked out $576m in dividends from Housing New Zealand.”
* The first version of this article incorrectly stated the Government was planning to downsize state-managed housing to about 60,000 units.
