Kāinga Ora’s Dixon St tenants need to be out by end of today

Friday, 3 May 2024

Remaining tenants at the Dixon St flats will be taken to the Tenancy Tribunal by Kāinga Ora if they are not out of their homes by the end of today, the housing agency says.

A 90-day notice, handed to the tenants in January, ended on Tuesday. As of Wednesday, 22 tenants remained.

Alternative housing options had been offered to all remaining tenants, Vicki McLaren, regional director for Greater Wellington at Kāinga Ora, said.

The flats were deemed old and outdated and the tenants were offered Kāinga Ora homes that were “warmer, healthier and better suited to their needs”, she said.

But tenants previously spoken to by The Post highlighted how many had been offered housing which did not meet their needs.

Sarah Russell, who had been living out of boxes since January, says she was offered two different homes before the deadline but neither were suitable – one because of her medical needs and another because she had a cat.

A remaining Dixon St tenant Sarah Russell is still yet to be offered a suitable home which would meet her needs.

Russell was asked whether she could give up her cat and was called at least three times to “try and convince me to move to Miramar”.

The uncertainty left her feeling mentally exhausted, and had affected her physical health ‒ living with Cerebellar degeneration she had recently been given a medical alarm necklace which she had already used when she started hyperventilating due to the stress.

This week she had heard of a number of other remaining tenants being offered housing in the Rolleston St flats, but by Friday she had not been contacted.

She was also unaware Kāinga Ora planned to take the remaining tenants to the Tenancy Tribunal if they were not out of their flats by the end of Friday, until contacted by The Post.

Kāinga Ora says it will be taking any remaining tenants by the end of today to the Tenancy Tribunal next week. One remaining tenant, Sarah Russell, was not aware of this.

McLaren said the team would continue to work with each tenant but if a resolution could not be reached by the end of this week, it would apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for the possession of the properties next week.

“We want to avoid this course of action and are hoping a solution can be found.”

The future of the building remained unclear as Kāinga Ora was still working through a decision, over a year after the complex’s supposed closure.

Ninety-four tenants had been moved to new homes over the last few months.

Another remaining tenant, who asked not to be named, said she was told “nothing yet” but had a meeting organised with a Kāinga Ora staff member on Friday afternoon.

Wellington Central Green MP Tamatha Paul, a former city councillor, previously said the remaining tenants were not there because they objected to leaving the building or because they were “trying to be a nuisance”. Many were elderly or had disabilities.

It was a reflection of Wellington’s poor housing supply which made it incredibly difficult to find a home if people had complex needs, she said.

Paul said today it would be a “devastating outcome” if they were taken to the Tenancy Tribunal.

“My team will continue to support the tenants until they have the homes that meet their needs.”

The building had been owned by Kāinga Ora since the mid-1940s and had undergone a number of major upgrades including interior and exterior painting, re-roofing, lift installation and maintenance, and other general maintenance, McLaren said.