More Hawke's Bay households in line for emergency housing

Some of the transitional housing at Kelvin Place. Photo / Supplied

Just weeks after the completion of a new emergency housing development, Hawke's Bay is set to gain another chunk of "transitional housing" to help the homeless, the Ministry of Social Development confirms.

"We've got plans to bring on at least an extra 14 transitional housing places in Hawke's Bay to provide short term housing for those most in need," Ministry of Social Development housing deputy chief executive Scott Gallacher said.

"These new places will provide room for 14 households at a time, and in a year are expected to provide accommodation and support for up to 56 households – single people, couples or families – each year.

"That's on top of the 171 transitional houses we already have in Hawke's Bay, which are providing accommodation and support for up to 684 households a year."

It was hoped some of the new buildings would be completed by the end of the year.

Two months ago Associate Housing and Urban Development Minister Jenny Salesa opened the completion of a 10-house development at Maraenui's Kelvin Place, where 10 one-bedroom homes were built.

Mr Gallacher said the housing provided by MSD was intended to be short-term housing for people to live in while the ministry worked with them to find them more permanent housing.

"We also fund long-term housing, and we plan to fund the building of another 195 public housing places, on top of the 2674 already available in Hawke's Bay."

The ministry's focus was on making public housing available for those in the greatest need for as long as they needed it.

MSD also worked with community providers and the housing sector to increase and diversify the supply of public housing and provide the supports people needed to build more independent lives.

The housing would be managed and maintained by contracted providers, skilled in supporting tenants with a range of social and tenancy-related services.