By BERNARD ORSMAN
Justice and Foreign Minister Phil Goff is leaning on the Minister of Housing to stop a planned development of 40 budget, terraced state houses in his Roskill electorate.
Residents fear the development will become a mini ghetto.
Mr Goff wrote yesterday on behalf of constituents to his junior cabinet colleague, Mark Gosche, asking Housing New Zealand to "negotiate a withdrawal" from a signed $6.8 million contract with Morningstar Enterprises.
The letter followed an angry public meeting on Thursday night attended by about 500 residents opposed to the three-bedroom terraced houses being built on Hillsborough Rd alongside the Lynfield shopping centre. Mr Goff chaired the sometimes-hostile meeting, which saw an action group set up.
Residents were furious that Housing NZ did not tell them it was the sole buyer of the 40 houses and angry that the Auckland City Council granted Morningstar resource consent for the development on a non-notified basis, which meant they had no say.
In his letter to Mr Gosche, Mr Goff - himself a former Housing Minister - said residents overwhelmingly voted to oppose the development because of the unattractive nature of the terrace-housing design, and because they preferred "pepper-potting" to high-density housing developments for low-income people with children.
Mr Goff told the Weekend Herald that high-density housing for low-income people could cause real social problems.
He said that he spoke at the meeting against the stereotype of state housing, saying he represented an electorate with a high percentage of state houses.
"I won't have that stereotype put around. Some are bad tenants and some are bad citizens but so are other people in other sections of the community."
Mr Gosche could not be reached for comment but Housing NZ said it would be happy to meet Mr Goff, community representatives and the developer, Arthur Morgenstern.
Mr Morgenstern, who sat quietly through Thursday's meeting, said his contract was unconditional. If it were withdrawn, someone would have to compensate him.
He said he would like to work with Housing NZ and the community to make improvements.
The houses were low cost, at about $170,000 each, but could be improved if Housing NZ was prepared to spend more money. He planned to build 37 private units, priced from $235,000, alongside the state houses.
Goff joins housing row
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