A $58 million investment will be focused on delivering "critical affordable" rental homes
A partnership between the government and iwi will inject more than $58 million in funds to create “critical affordable” homes for Māori across New Zealand.
Read more: National Maori Authority warns low-income Kiwis about housing crisis
Associate Minister of Housing Peeni Henare announced the funding and the “first of many” partnerships was announced last week, and an agreement was signed.
The $58 million investment will deliver a minimum of 172 affordable rental homes across Taranaki, Ohakune, Tūrangi, Tokoroa, Blenheim, Thames, and Tāmaki Makaurau, as well as fund 31 progressive homeownership developments in New Plymouth and Stratford, Stuff reported.
Bringing these housing aspirations to reality was the tie-up between Ka Uruora Trustee Aotearoa Limited, a body established by Taranaki iwi for Māori housing, Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga (Ministry of Housing and Urban Development), and Te Puni Kōkiri (Ministry of Māori Development).
Henare said the partnership was “groundbreaking” as it covered everything from homeownership, to rentals, to education around finances.
“More importantly, what it will do is unlock intergeneration wealth, and aspirational wealth in housing,” Henare told Stuff. “We know Māori have some of the worst housing conditions in Aotearoa. The status quo clearly wasn’t good enough.
Ka Uruora chair Jamie Tuuta said the partnership would help the iwi body “deliver critical affordable housing solutions for our whanau.”
An analysis of Māori households that didn’t own their own home found a big group described as the “affordable rental category,” or those who were not eligible for rental subsidies, earned between $40,000 and $70,000 a year, and could not get their foot in the door to buy a home, Tuuta said.
“That’s why a lot of the focus initially is on affordable rentals and what we’re seeking to do there is charge 80% of a market rental, and cap, where possible, the rent at 30% of the household income,” Tuuta told Stuff. “And what that does, it provides an opportunity for better saving habits, but also to be able to deal with any debt and think about what’s required for that whānau to move to the next stage of the continuum – which is progressive homeownership.”
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Tuuta said the target on delivering houses, and “getting significant work progressed on these projects”, was June next year.
“Things have to change, and today marks that transition and change that is occurring,” he told Stuff. “We have whānau at the forefront of our minds.”
Te Waka McLeod, Ka Uruora whānau engagement manager, had already been working with whānau on the ground about home ownership.
“Owning your own whare is an aspiration for many Māori, but most simply cannot afford a conventional deposit and mortgage repayments in the current market,” McLeod told Stuff. “And they don’t know how to get there.”
