Ticket to prosperity: Sleepyhead development holds promise for iwi, leaders say

Monday, 29 March 2021

Members of the Tangata Whenua Governance Group working with Sleepyhead (from left) Glen Tūpuhi, Ricky Maipi, Tāwera Nīkau and Kero Nīkau.

Iwi leaders in north Waikato want a proposed billion dollar industrial and housing development to go ahead, saying it could transform the lives of Māori in the area.

A decision could be delivered in weeks for the massive Sleepyhead development, which proposes a new industrial hub and 1100 affordable houses in Ōhinewai.

The plan has faced opposition recently, including from Waikato Regional Council Chair Russ Rimmington, who said the housing shouldn't be in Ōhinewai.

But a tangata whenua governance group says the development could turn intergenerational poverty into prosperity.

“We are talking about the uplifting of our people from the bottom rung of the ladder to halfway up the ladder,” Te Riu o Waikato chair Tāwera Nīkau told Stuff.

An impression of Sleepyhead's massive industrial hub and housing community that is planned for Ōhinewai. Supplied

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It's hoped the Sleepyhead development will bring jobs and opportunities for those living in Rāhui Pōkeka | Huntly.

The governance group is made up of marae in the area, and representatives signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sleepyhead director Craig Turner in 2019.

Nīkau said the development could bring jobs, housing, education and business opportunities for Māori.

Turner has previously told Stuff the development, based 10 minutes from Huntly, could bring about 1500 jobs and 1100 affordable homes in entirety.

Ohinewai in the North Waikato is set to become where Sleepyhead plans to build a massive facility which also includes affordable housing for their staff (This video was first published in November, 2019).

Stuff understands commissioners could deliver a significant decision on the development in the coming weeks. This would establish whether the land could be rezoned for both factory and houses.

A separate application for the foam factory is currently being considered under the Covid-19 RMA fast-track legislation.

Nīkau said the promise of a home, as well as a job, could create longer-term prosperity for some Māori.

“If you look at Māori home-ownership, it’s very low compared to others,” Nīkau said.

“Being able to have an opportunity to own your own home, that's an intergenerational investment, we are talking about 25 to 50 years down the track with this project.”

Ngā Muka development trust chair Glen Tūpuhi says towns like Rāhui Pōkeka | Huntly have been forgotten by failing industry and Rogernomics, but the Sleepyhead development is an opportunity for change.

Statistics New Zealand's Housing in Aotearoa 2020 report showed rates of severe housing deprivation were highest among young Pacific and young Māori people.

Rāhui Pōkeka (Huntly) itself has some of the highest deprivation in the country for employment, income, health and education, according to a 2018 Waikato Plan report on socioeconomic deprivation in the region.

Huntly has some of the highest rates of deprivation in the country, according to a 2018 Waikato Plan report.

“There’s a whole underclass of Māori missing out,” Ngā Muka Development Trust chair Glen Tūpuhi said.

“Huntly hasn’t seen the agricultural wealth of this region.

“Huntly hasn’t seen the benefits of Rogernomics, there's been no trickle down, there's been no benefits from John Key's rockstar economy.”

Housing was built around what was once flourishing industry – forestry, mining and the railways.

But once the industry disappeared, so did housing and jobs, Tūpuhi said.

Te Riu o Waikato currently has linked up five Huntly people into jobs in the Sleepyhead factory in Ōtāhuhu – but hope more Huntly people will be able to work if Sleepyhead builds in the area, General Manager Ricky Maipi said.

Maipi said it is understood while south Auckland staff might relocate, many jobs could go to Huntly locals.

That's something Kero Nīkau, who works helping people back into trades jobs from unemployment and crime, wants to see.

He thinks the Sleepyhead development could help decrease crime by providing a goal.

“This development could help those people that society doesn’t want to know about, by giving them an opportunity to try and turn their lives around.”

A lot of the housing stock in the town was “very poor”, Kero said.

But the idea of owning a home was out of reach to some who struggled to live week to week.

“[Owning a home], it's not so much a dream, it’s an entitlement as Māori you know.

“It’s just that our people haven't been educated in that, living under this system.”