Abandoned Kainga Ora housing block at 580 Hillsborough Rd, Lynfield. Photo / Alex Burton
Abandoned Kainga Ora housing block at 580 Hillsborough Rd, Lynfield. Photo / Alex Burton
An abandoned Kāinga Ora housing complex in Lynfield, Auckland, is empty, covered in graffiti, and unmonitored.
MP Dr Carlos Cheung has raised concerns with Kāinga Ora about squatters and drug use at the site.
Kāinga Ora plans to demolish the complex due to significant building issues and rising construction costs.
An abandoned Kāinga Ora housing complex for the elderly lies empty in the Auckland suburb of Lynfield, trashed, covered in graffiti, the security fencing wide open, and reports of squatters and drug use.
Sadhana Reddy, practice manager at Lynfield Medical Centre, said the abandoned flats had become a community eyesore and a place of unruly activities, including a dumping ground for household rubbish.
The site is unmonitored and deteriorating, and someone needs to be accountable for the state of the flats, she said.
The MP for Mt Roskill Dr Carlos Cheung has taken the issue up with Kāinga Ora this month after receiving complaints from residents, including reports of squatters moving in and drug use.
Abandoned Kāinga Ora housing block at 580 Hillsborough Rd, Lynfield. Photo / Alex Burton
He said Kāinga Ora tried to secure the complex but people were breaking in, which was confirmed when a Herald photographer visited the site yesterday and found several ways in.
Kāinga Ora Northern deputy chief executive Caroline Butterworth said the complex at 580 Hillsborough Rd is planned to be demolished but there is no firm timeframe or contract at this stage, or the future use of the site.
She said Housing New Zealand purchased the four-building complex in 2004, which complied with all the required regulations at the time.
Over the years, she said, issues arose with the weathertightness of the buildings, and scoping was carried out to determine what was needed to make the buildings warmer, drier and healthier, and to extend their life. While engineers were doing that scoping work, they discovered the buildings would also require significant seismic strengthening to bring them up to current seismic standards.
The rear of the abandoned Kāinga Ora housing block has gaps in the fencing. Photo / Alex Burton
“We would have expected that buildings constructed in 2004 would have a much longer lifespan than 20 years. Unfortunately, the extent of the issues with the buildings and the rising costs of construction work means it makes more commercial sense to demolish than to remediate,” Butterworth said.
All the residents at the complex have been supported and moved into other Kāinga Ora homes, she said.
Butterworth said the Hillsborough Rd buildings were fenced off and boarded up to prevent access to the site. When the Herald told Kāinga Ora about gaps in the fencing a spokesperson said it would look into the matter.
Rubbish and damage to the abandoned Kāinga Ora housing block at Lynfield. Photo / Alex Burton
The complex has a chequered history, going back to the early 2000s.
The original plan to build 40 low-cost units with a possible 34-unit extension led to a public outcry and fears the development would become a mini ghetto.
This led to a new multi-storey pensioner village by developer Arthur Morgenstern, who described it as highly innovative. Designed alongside Australian architect Geoffrey Walker, the development had 52 units with a lift service for elderly people with reduced mobility.
The then-local MP Phil Goff described the outcome as “a sensible compromise and a community asset”.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
