Community housing sector ready to increase social and affordable homes

Oct 30, 2017 | News

26 October 2017

Community housing sector ready to increase social and affordable homes

New Zealand’s community housing sector welcomes the new Labour-led coalition Government.

“We are ready to partner to see ‘all New Zealanders well-housed’,” says Scott Figenshow, CE of Community Housing Aotearoa.

“Congratulations to Phil Twyford in the new role as Minister of Housing and Urban Development and Carmel Sepuloni as Minister for Social Development.

“We look forward to working with the whole team – as what we achieve together is greater than what any of us can do alone.

“The new Government have ambitious goals in the housing area. We have a proven track record of delivering quality social and affordable housing,” says Scott Figenshow.

“That means our nation will achieve these goals much more quickly when community housing providers and Housing New Zealand both have access to the investment.”

“And we’re ready to do this.”

On Tuesday a large group of the sector met in Wellington to review how they could work with the new Government to help them meet their objective of ensuring all Kiwis can live in warm, dry homes.

“NZ’s community housing provider’s proven track record in affordable housing speaks for itself.

“We’ve developed and tested innovative housing solutions such as rent-to-buy, shared ownership and assisted rental, through-out New Zealand,” says Scott Figenshow.

NZ’s community housing groups say they have a significant role to play because their housing is regulated and they are experienced social landlords.

“There was a period of three years of capital investment when we were delivering more net new homes than Housing New Zealand.”

“And the secret to how we’ve managed to deliver as many homes as we have – is capital.

NZ’s community housing sector say the new Labour-led Government’s commitment to 1000 social homes and 10,000 affordable homes a year is a good start. Continuing both the Income Related Rent Subsidy and adding direct capital investment will speed up this delivery, they say.

“We call on the new Government to fast track a ten-year pipeline of funding certainty within its first budget.”

All New Zealanders well-housed is the vision Community Housing Aotearoa works towards.

We are the umbrella organisation for over 100 members who are building and managing affordable, social and emergency housing, including many who use a Housing First approach to address homelessness.

We play an advocacy and stewardship role for the sector, building capacity by promoting best practices, skill development, resources and policy engagement for our members and other stakeholders.

Ultimately, we want to demonstrate that non-profit housing is a critical element alongside private and government-owned housing. No one alone can do it. We need all three housing pillars to achieve our ambition of providing every New Zealander with a home that fits their needs and means, as a basic human right. As a country – this will make us better and stronger.

Copyright © |2017| Community Housing Aotearoa| All rights reserved.www.communityhousing.org.nz
Our mailing address is:
Level 1, Southmark House, 203 Willis Street

PO Box 11543
Wellington 6142

Phone: (04) 385 8722

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