New social housing open day at Maraenui, Napier. Kāinga Ora Homes and Communities has a large build
programme underway. There are about 400 new state homes in the pipeline.
More than 400 homes, mainly under construction or in advanced planning, could be completed in Napier due to last year’s extension of the 2020-24 Public Housing Plan to secure funding through to the end of next year.
Kāinga Ora community engagement and partnerships manager East North Island DaleGrant expects most of the state homes to be completed within two years, with significant impact on the Ministry of Social Development’s Housing Register.
New homes about to be completed in Hitchings Ave, Onekawa. Photo / Warren Buckland.
At the end of December the register showed 717 people in Napier needing to be housed. It increased during 2023 with most in emergency accommodation, mainly motels, and the latest quarterly figures are expected this month.
Kāinga Ora community engagement and partnerships manager East North Island Dale Grant explains the development of hundreds of homes taking place in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
Across Napier, including mainly Maraenui, Marewa, and Onekawa but extending to Taradale and Tamatea, 321 homes are “in progress” from advanced planning to construction, with 50 more in early planning, in particular taking care of sites empty since over 100 state housing units were removed in demolition and removal up to 12 years ago.
But plans also include hopes for sites of recent demolition, such as Bestall St, Maraenui, with two options being discussed in a “pop-up” display centre in the Maraenui Shopping Centre this week.
Visitors were told 18 new homes had been completed in the past fortnight, including six on a Masefield Ave site and 12 in Barker Rd, in neighbouring Marewa. Work is nearly finished on 10 homes in Hitchings Ave, Onekawa, and work is expected to start soon on 16 new homes on long-empty sites in Lister Cres, Maraenui.
Major work is continuing in Venables Ave a short distance from Maraenui Park.
Starts on another 30 in Lister Place and Geddis Ave, Maraenui, are among plans for this year, along with 28 in Bledisloe Rd, on some of the longest-vacant land opposite the shopping centre.
Kāinga Ora is “talking to stakeholders” in the area of the multi-storeyed Carnell St flats, between Kennedy and Taradale Rds, that have been under demolition in recent months.
The corner of Beldisloe Rd and Hillary Cres, amid plans of building this year after more than a decade vacant. Photo / Warren Buckland
Agency regional director east North Island Naomi Whitewood said the agency and local stakeholders developed initial plans for the vacant land now in redevelopment throughout 2021, and plans for seven of the sites in the Maraenui area were shared with the community the following year.
The corner of Bledisloe Rd and Hillary Cres and how it is envisaged it will look with new housing. Photo / Warren Buckland.
The plans included five where new “public housing” would be built, and now other sites in Bledisloe Rd and Percy Spiller Ave are earmarked for housing other than Kāinga Ora state homes.
Whitewood said Kāinga Ora owned 34 per cent of all Maraenui housing, most of its stock having been three-bedroom homes over 50 years old. Feedback from consultation pointed to reducing the “public housing footprint” in the area and contributing to “affordable rental, home ownership or other housing options”.
She explained delays by saying: “Finding partners and investment options for this type of development has been a challenge that Kāinga Ora continues to work through. "
“Over the last two years, significantly increased build costs and infrastructure requirements have added to the challenge,” she said. “However, we remain committed to finding solutions for the last of our vacant land in Maraenui.”
Grant said the pop-up had been an opportunity for people to get their questions answered and discuss the plans for new housing. More than 200 people visited during the week, many posting comments on the area of images and plans shown, one of which reads, in short: “Childhood dreams in action as we speak. Tumeke.”
The post-it responses of visitors to the pop-up centre this week. Photo / Warren Buckland
Grant said: “We are committed to delivering the extra houses in Napier that have been budgeted for in the Public Housing Plan. These new homes will make a real difference meeting some of the demand for more housing in the city.”
“They will also make a real difference for the whānau moving in,” he said. “We know that having a stable home is important to all aspects of a person’s life - from education and employment to physical and mental health.”
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
