Hohepa community growing in Kāpiti

Residents and staff standing outside Hohepa Wellington's new residential house in Otaihanga.

It blossomed from the acquisition of 2ha of land and has quickly become a community.

Hohepa Wellington began in 2013 when the Hohepa Homes Trust Board purchased a 2ha site in Kāpiti with the vision of providing 24/7 accommodation and support on the site for adults with intellectual disabilities.

The result is a growing community in semi-rural Otaihanga where full-time residents can live onsite and participate in vocational activities such as gardening, crafts, cooking, horse riding and other activities within the community such as joining with The Shed Project on Thursdays, drumming with the Avalanche Inclusive Band.

With an old farm house already on the land, the organisation refurbished it to suit their needs and has since built three new buildings on the site.

In 2015 the first residents and staff moved in after extensive renovation to the existing house.

With plenty of land, the trust is building more residential houses with the hope that it will continue to grow.

"There are plans to develop the site and the community further over the next three to five years which includes more homes and supporting more people," said operations manager Caroline Gordon.

Situated at the end of Pitoitoi St, the site's newest residential house will open on November 11 with four new residents moving in.

The new house has an individual flat with all the necessities inside, joined to the main house, which will be home for another three residents, taking the total number of residents up to 11.

"It's a beautiful new facility," Ms Gordon said.

"It's very exciting because I think it offers a really lovely place for people to come live."

House manager Liz Konia is looking forward to the opening and the new facilities that are still to come.

"All the current residents are local, from here to Wellington.

"For some of these people it's more peaceful and better for their wellbeing for them to live in a semi-rural environment like this.

"There are walks really close by and we meet their social needs with our vocational activities as well as the peaceful harmony of the environment.

"It's really important that we meet their soulful needs as well as their physical needs.

"Our goal is to make crafts to sell at Kāpiti markets and extend our daytime services to more people."

More building development is planned with units for independent living where residents can live safely by themselves but still access the 24/7 support Hohepa offers.

"There will be a few independent living units that will be going up where people touch base in the village but practice living alone.

Wanting 'Every life fully lived', Hohepa is developing their site to extend their capacity and create a village where residents can live independently but remain socially connected and supported.