More housing on its way for vulnerable families

Vacant Crown land in Auckland will be turned into a 51-home development to provide transitional housing for families before they move into permanent accommodation, Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett has announced.

The 1.6ha site at Luke St, Otahuhu, has been earmarked by its owner the Ministry of Education for a future school, but in the meantime will be developed into 27 two-bedroom, seven three-bedroom and 17 four-bedroom homes for families on the social housing register.

Mrs Bennett, who made the announcement during her keynote speech to the National Maori Housing Conference in Tauranga this morning, says the development is just one of many new developments to come as the Government ramps up the housing supply in Auckland.

“The Ministry of Education will not be using this site for several years so has leased it to Housing New Zealand. This is an excellent use of the Crown’s land resources in Auckland to address the need for more emergency and temporary housing for vulnerable families,” Mrs Bennett says.

“The resource consent was lodged this week and work will begin shortly on a fast ‘stick-build’ – that is, traditional building. But the homes will be built so that they can be easily moved later. We expect that tenants will be able to move in by the end of February next year. A community provider will be contracted to manage the site and offer wraparound services to tenants.

“This development is just one part of our Government’s comprehensive housing plan. Our focus is on delivering safe, warm, permanent housing but we are responding to the need for short-term accommodation for people in unexpected, difficult circumstances.

“Over the coming months, we will deliver even more emergency and medium-term housing places over and above the more than 3000 places a year funded in the Budget.”