Auckland Council to blame ‘if I die’, says resident waiting for update on flood-damaged home

By Mahvash Ikram of RNZ

An elderly man waiting for his flood-affected home to be assigned a recovery category says if he dies waiting, Auckland Council will be to blame.

He had been hospitalised three times since the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods damaged his home, he told First Up.

“If I die, I will write that these people are responsible for my death.

“Nobody [has] contacted me so far, no help was rendered. I should know in which category I fall and what I am to do with the house. Can I demolish it? Can I repair it?”

He was one of about 50 people who attended a Tāmaki Makaurau recovery office community meeting on Tuesday in Rānui, West Auckland.

It had been nearly 17 months since the Auckland Anniversary floods shattered the lives of many across the city.

Since then, many were living in limbo, waiting for Auckland Council to assess whether their properties can be rebuilt and lived in again.

Rānui and Swanson were amongst the worst affected suburbs in the city.

Homeowners had until the end of September to register their properties for an assessment.

Council was focused on helping those who were most at risk, and with complex needs, Auckland Council deputy group recovery manager Mace Ward said.

He hoped all homes would be given a category by March 2025.

“But there’s a deconstruction programme that continues, there’s the infrastructure projects that will continue for at least 10 years.

“The early ones will be much more rapid in the first two years, but those other projects will continue for quite a long time. So there’s a long time,” he said.

To speed up the categorisation process, council was looking at reallocating its budget.

The $2 billion recovery fund was divided for resilience projects and property buy-outs.

Mace Ward. Photo / Dean Purcell

The council proposed resilience funding to go towards buy-outs.

But that was of little comfort to Belinda.

“We’ve had neighbours next to us and also people across the road categorised as three, we’re the only house sitting in a whole lot of people that haven’t had a category yet, so it doesn’t sound good for us.

“We live on the stream and it’s eroding more underneath our fence. So that’s it. We’ve just realised that we’re just stuffed now.”

Like the others, Belinda said she was not expecting answers from the meeting either.

“It will be the same as the usual meetings and we all hear our stories all over again and nothing, I guess because I’ve asked all my questions to council. They’re not answering everything that I need, so there’s just no point.”