Ministry says state houses on track for Invercargill
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
With two years to go to its deadline, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has only delivered five of the 40 state houses promised for Invercargill.
A ministry spokesperson, on Wednesday, said the remaining houses will be built by community housing providers or Kāinga Ora – a newly-formed agency representing KiwiBuild and Housing New Zealand.
Kāinga Ora's Southland area manager Gill Brown said the agency intended to build 81 houses in Southland and Otago by the end of the 2022/2023 financial year.
'In Invercargill, the homes will be built on either existing Kāinga Ora-owned land or land we may buy,' Brown said.
State houses are not the only housing options available to Invercargill residents. The ministry says there are 32 transitional housing places, 283 emergency housing special needs grants in Invercargill, alongside 349 public housing tenancies.
**READ MORE:
* Invercargill housing development on hold for short term
* Southland property value growth the highest in the country
* Accelerating action on housing**
The ministry announced its plan to build 40 houses in Invercargill over four years in late-2018, as part of Government's Public Housing Plan with a deadline of 2022.
Five houses were already in the pipeline when the plan was announced.
To date, three have been completed on Ness St and Kew Rd and two are being built in Lyon St, which are expected to be finished by June 2020.
Southland Housing Action Forum chairman Shaun Drylie wants Associate Minister of Housing Kris Faafoi to come to Southland to give an update on the ministry's plans.
The forum wanted to go above ministry officials, Drylie said.
'The Southland Housing Action Forum is keen to ensure that the central government and their ministries are in no doubt that the need in Southland is becoming urgent,' he said.
But, Drylie noted, lobbying has been the least effective means to drive change in the region because of how long it takes.
The forum works to encourages private development in Southland and ease issues along the housing value chain, Drylie said.
The results of this were the approval to build on the Kew Bowl site and support from Invercargill City Council to develop social housing in Invercargill, he said.
The Southland Housing Action Forum is in the process of hiring a housing co-ordinator – with funding from the Southland Chamber of Commerce, SBS Bank and the Community Trust – to streamline its efforts.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development's December 2019 quarterly housing report, there were 387 applicants on the housing register for public housing in Southland.
That number was 275 in December 2018.
Southland Community Housing Group lead Margaret Cook believed the ministry would struggle to meet its target of 40 new houses over four years.
'If they could carry on and do some more, that would be progress,' she said.
Habitat for Humanity is in the process of developing affordable housing at the old Kew Bowl site.
Invercargill general manager Paul Searancke said it was in talks with the Invercargill City Council about key issues like access and infrastructure.
It's also eyeing a possible social housing project with the old Takitimu Anglican Home building, which it is managing on behalf of the owner.
Searancke noted that the squeeze on housing wasn't just a ministry one.
Development had slowed and when new houses were built in Southland, they tended to be bigger homes, beyond the budget of first time home-owners, he said.
The NZ Property Investors' Federation said rental prices hit record highs in February with prices in Invercargill up 9.9 per cent from February 2019.