John Tamihere lobs 'corruption' line into housing dispute

Thursday, 27 September 2018

The chief executive of Te Whānau O Waipareira, John Tamihere, has refused to withdraw a reference to corruption in a dispute over a proposed social housing development.

Tamihere made the comment in an appeal to Auckland councillors at a meeting on Thursday to intervene in a stand-off between his organisation and the council agency Panuku.

Mayor Phil Goff interjected, calling the comment unfortunate, wrong and defamatory, but Tamihere described it as a value judgement he was asking councillors to make.

Tamihere found little support either from councillors or from other community housing providers for his stance on a proposed development in central Papatoetoe.

**READ MORE:

* 280-apartment social housing complex for central Auckland, 80 units to go on open market

* Phil Twyford rules out 'state-sponsored gentrification' in Auckland

* Housing NZ complex shows Auckland's 'Nimby nightmare' unitary plan in action

* Public housing waiting list surges: 8108 awaiting homes in April**

Waipareira is the preferred developer for a residential site owned by council agency, Panuku Development.

The agency requires an equal three-way split of market homes, social housing and 'affordable' homes in the development.

After getting the nod to proceed with detailed plans, Waipareira sought to lift the social housing component to 70 per cent, which Panuku declined.

Tamihere said no evidence was offered to support the three-way split requirement, which he believed was not viable.

'If you had 30 or 50 per cent social, do you think the rest of those units will be bought by people wanting affordable housing?' he asked councillors.

Tamihere said Waipareira had a legal opinion suggesting the stance was in breach of the Human Rights Act, as it discriminated against those shut out of the housing market.

He planned to challenge Panuku's policy in court and seek a declaratory judgement on the Human Rights aspect.

Waitakere ward councillor Penny Hulse was one of those Tamihere had lobbied in July on the issue, and she backed Panuku's stance on the housing mix.

'It's international best practice and is supported by community housing providers, the City Mission and others,' she told Tamihere.

Auckland Community Housing Providers Network circulated a letter at the council meeting, supporting a three-way mix of housing tenures in developments.

'It retains and improves diversity within communities and leads to more engaged communities,' said it's chair Hope Simonsen.

One major provider of social, affordable and assisted-ownership homes said the three-way split worked well.

We've not had any resistance to selling the houses,' said Dominic Foot, operations manager for the Housing Foundation.

'We tell people coming into the affordable and open-market homes that they are in a mixed development, and the house next to them might be a social rental house, an affordable rental house, or might be a private owner.'

Mayor Phil Goff said the mixed tenure model advocated by Panuku was the right one and Waipareira's stance was a purely commercial one.

'They buy the land off Panuku, they commission the builder, they sell it to Housing New Zealand and they sell it at a profit,' said Goff after the meeting.

'They are acting like any other developer, that's quite legitimate, I'm not criticising that, but let's not pretend it's anything other than that.'

Goff said Panuku was acting within the law and he hoped Waipareira wouldn't take court action, which would cost both sides money.

Panuku is expected to re-offer the Papatoetoe site to the market, if the Waipareira deal folds after nearly a year of negotiation.