One community housing group’s response to Kiwibuild

Housing Minister Phil Twyford told Newshub on Saturday the Government doesn’t want to set up a “heavy bureaucracy”.

“We know the desire for home ownership really cuts across all kind of social groups and income levels. Our goal is to make these houses available in a fair and transparent way.”

• No means testing for KiwiBuild homes

But Monte Cecilia Housing Trust CEO Bernie Smith says the Government just wants to be seen doing something about the housing crisis, and isn’t paying enough attention to social housing.

“How can community housing providers and those providing social services really assist people at the bottom end of the housing continuum, so there’s a smooth pathway for these families through to home ownership?”

Mr Smith says little is being said about social housing and affordable rentals.

“If you don’t actually look at the whole housing continuum and look to rectify it at every stage of housing need, all you do is create other issues.”

Under Kiwibuild, affordable in Auckland begins at $600,000. The average QV in the city is just over $1 million.

Labour has promised to build 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years and end the previous Govenrment’s sell-off of state housing, but it’s unclear exactly how many state houses it plans to build – except that it will be “more” than National did.

You can read the full interview between Lisa Owen and Phil Twyford here where he mentions Kiwi buy and his inclusionary zoning expectations:

“So my concern and what I’ve told officials is that I expect, if we’re doing a big development in a place like Northcote or Mt Roskill or Tamaki or anywhere else, then I would expect 30% to 40% of the new homes in that development would be KiwiBuild affordable homes, and I also want to see more state housing built and market homes as well.”