Tararua District housing: local iwi presents on housing developments

The former site of Hillcrest School in Pahiatua where a housing development is planned.

“Housing is a mess,” an iwi representative has told a Tararua District Council committee.

Shaun Lines, general manager of Te Tahua o Rangitāne, the economic development and housing arm of Rangitane and the programme lead for Tū Mai Rā investments, believed not enough houses had been built nationally.

Shaun Lines spoke on the aspirations for housing for Rangitane in the Tararua District. Photo / Leanne Warr

He was presenting on the iwi organisation’s aspirations for housing in the Tararua District at the Community Development and Wellbeing Committee’s July meeting.

“Many of the homes we’ve got in our community are tired, they’re not warm, and to be honest, people pay extraordinary rents to rent homes that I probably wouldn’t allow my pets to live in.”

Lines said the previous Government had funded Tū Mai Rā investments to do master planning and development plans on three sites in the district, as well as one in the Wairarapa.

However, that guarantee of future funding once the plan was submitted was “now in the air”.

He explained that the investment group, which manages funds from Treaty settlements, were the custodians of the former sites of Matamau School, Hillcrest Dannevirke and Hillcrest Pahīatua.

He said there was a difference in those properties.

“Hillcrest Dannevirke and Hillcrest Pahīatua, we actually don’t have a specific iwi link or a cultural heritage on those sites – this was part of a settlement – whereas Matamau is a cultural redress site because there were activities there historically that … was sacred to [Rangitāne].”

The project was now getting to the point of finalising business cases on the sites and working with local iwi to identify the best way forward, Lines said.

He said there were some guiding values, such as caring for the land.

“Each one of those pieces of land is quite beautiful. And whatever we do there needs to enhance them.”

The development was about knowing “our whakapapa”, what was sacred to them and how the lands were previously involved, Lines told the committee.

“Also understanding the aspirations and needs of our community - and that’s our own people - plus the people that are attached to them.

“We are part of a community, we’re not isolated from them.”

The aim was to build 100 homes over the land with a mix of tenure – such as tenanted or owner-occupied – and with the added cost of infrastructure, it could potentially be $60 – $70 million in investment.

Lines went on to explain some of the details around the development plans, adding it was going to be “mix and match” in terms of the community.

How it would be funded would add another element to it.

Lines said while the Government was “into this” 18 months ago, the signals were that it was not the case now.

On the flip side, however, other parties were coming to the table, with a strong movement within the developer base for build to rent, he said.

More work was coming on the plans but Lines said they wanted to share the progress with the council “so you can sort of see what our thinking is”.

It was hoped that subdivision plans would be able to be submitted toward the end of the month or the beginning of next month.

Leanne Warr has been editor of the Bush Telegraph since May 2023 and a journalist since 1996. She re-joined NZME in June 2021.