Kāinga Ora is a political football right now: Stratford Mayor Neil Volzke

The Kāinga Ora review was led by former Prime Minister Sir Bill English. Photo / Andrew Warner

Neil Volzke is the Stratford District Council mayor.

OPINION

After six months on the sideline, I welcome the opportunity to return with an opinion column in our local newspaper. For me personally, it is a kind of therapeutic thing, allowing me to get it off my chest, so to speak. For you, the reader, I hope it informs and sometimes provokes. This week, it strikes me that Kāinga Ora is worth a mention.

Kāinga Ora is an organisation that has been under fire in recent times. The public housing agency has fallen foul of the Minister of Housing Chris Bishop, who has led the attack, saying he had significant concerns about the governance of Kāinga Ora, before proceeding to “refresh” the governance board. The report that triggered his action described them as binging on borrowing without sufficient heed to the fiscal discipline taking on such immense debts would require. Large annual deficits of $700 million were imminent.

On the other hand, the previous Government steadfastly defended Kāinga Ora’s debts, arguing that you cannot build large numbers of additional houses without significantly increasing debt. The total debt is forecast to increase to $23 billion, something the new chairman Simon Moutter will be tasked with sorting out. He will need to call on all his business experience with Powerco, Telecom and Auckland Airport to resolve this one.

As a mere mortal looking in, it seems to me both parties are speaking some truth.

The coalition Government’s view that rapidly rising, out-of-control debt is unsustainable seems fair. Alternatively, Labour’s view that you cannot build more houses without increasing debt also seems fair.

Is a compromise position on the horizon? Not likely, as both parties are so firmly entrenched neither will give an inch. Kāinga Ora will remain a political football I suspect.

But what does Kāinga Ora look like at a local level? Recently I met with representatives of Kāinga Ora who gave an update on social housing across the Taranaki region and within the Stratford District. The information shared by them confirmed what anecdotally I already knew, that is, a strong demand for social housing and a static supply.

Currently, there are 33 households on the social housing waiting list in the Stratford District, which is around three times the number of five years ago, when it was just nine households. The regional trend is similar.

There are a further six households living in emergency accommodation in the district - nine adults and six children.

These demand figures may appear relatively small but do not make for enjoyable reading when the number of social houses available is factored in. In December 2015, the social housing stock in Stratford totalled 39; remarkably, eight years later in December 2023, the number of social houses still totalled 39, meaning there has been no net increase in housing stock in eight years, despite the demand increasing.

Across the region for the same period, the numbers went from 1159 houses in 2015 to 1109 houses in 2023, indicating that across the region we have gone backwards, big-time.

For me, the take-home message is this - if Kāinga Ora has built thousands of houses in the last eight years and increased its total social housing stock, they sure have not built them in our patch. We need to turn this around and the Kāinga Ora visitors did just that with some good news - actually very good news.

Kāinga Ora revealed that two new, three-bedroom houses have been built in Stratford so far this year. A further 10 new houses of various sizes are under construction and due for completion before the end of this year. This will be a hugely significant addition to our social housing stock and a relief for some of the families on the waiting list.

So, after a lengthy period with little to celebrate, we will now have 12 new houses to cheer about. Which takes me back to my earlier thoughts. I still cannot quite figure out whether the Kāinga Ora is broken or not, but right now they are looking good.