The Kāinga Ora housing development on the corner of Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd.
The Kāinga Ora housing development on the corner of Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd.
New details about the second stage of the Malfroy Rd and Ranolf St Kāinga Ora housing development will be revealed at a drop-in session being held at the site next week.
It comes as a mum living in the complex shares the story of how the housing is helping her to start a new life.
Kāinga Ora has delivered a flyer to residents in the area inviting locals to a drop-in session on Tuesday between 2.30pm and 5.30pm.
Those attending the session are expected to hear about higher-density apartments being built on the northeastern corner of the development, closest to the roundabout.
The session is being held to celebrate the completion of 25 houses at the site and will invite locals to have a look around them.
Locals will also hear the latest on the next 12 homes to be delivered to the site and gauge feedback on how the completed community house and green space should be used, a Kāinga Ora spokeswoman said.
There will also be more information released about the second stage of the housing development, which will see apartment-style living.
The Kāinga Ora site on the corner of Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd.
A solo mother with five children who moved to one of the new homes at the complex in August last year said she loved living there.
The woman, who didn’t want to be named because she was starting a new life, said it was like a dream come true to have a new, warm and modern house.
She said she had spent a year and a half living in emergency housing and had applied for more than 100 rentals. She said she became disheartened because she felt others, not from Rotorua, were getting the rental houses ahead of her.
She said she was forced to leave her rental and go into emergency housing when her youngest child was a week old because her landlord was putting the house on the market.
She was highly stressed in emergency housing and admitted to drinking too much to cope.
“I felt like I was a failure to my kids.”
They spent one Christmas in emergency housing, and as Christmas drew near last year, it broke her heart when her children asked, “Mum, we’re going to have our own house by Christmas, eh?”
She said Christmas at their new house on the corner of Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd was “awesome”. She said they had about 30 family members over and all the other residents in the complex had a great time too.
“The children were all playing together in the street. It was so cool to see. We felt so happy.”
She said most of the residents at the complex knew each other from their emergency housing days and were grateful for their new lives.
What new houses on Quartz Ave will look like.
Meanwhile, Kāinga Ora has recently bought 13 homes from developers who are building them for the purpose of Kāinga Ora taking ownership and using them for public housing.
There are four homes on Koutu Rd, six on Malfroy Rd and three on Clayton Rd. Seven of the houses will be finished later this year and six will be done early next year, the Kāinga Ora spokeswoman said.
A letter drop is being sent out this week to neighbours of all properties to let them know about the homes.
Another drop-in session is being held on Monday next week for Pukehangi residents to hear the latest on Kāinga Ora’s plans for developments on Quartz Ave, Gem St and Roger St, which collectively will bring 60 new houses to the area.
