Community Housing Aotearoa and Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities are busy developing an exciting programme that is being updated regularly on the conference website. The Shift Aotearoa Conference 2019 will bring housing sector actors together to spark collaborative action for one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most urgent problems. Policy makers and officials across government, iwi, community housing practitioners, Māori housing providers, researchers, analysts, and those delivering housing from the ground up – builders, architects, the construction sector, finance providers, planners, philanthropists, and front-line staff – will join community representatives and rangatahi Māori for three days of learning, networking, and solution creation for fixing Aotearoa New Zealand’s housing delivery system. Sparked by the latest research from Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities Ko Ngā wā Kāinga hei Whakamāhorahora National Science Challenge and international researchers, and case studies from community housing practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand, the conference will seek to develop a platform for cross-sector action. Key features of the conference

• Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing will deliver a keynote video address on #theshifthttp://www.unhousingrapp.org/the-shift (to be confirmed).
• Paul Hunt, Chief Commissioner, NZ Human Rights Commission.
• Moana Jackson keynote on Te Tiriti o Waitangi Rights, Human Rights.
• Māori Housing Think-Tank hui.
• Professor Christine Whitehead, London School of Economics, Professor Emeritus in Housing Economics keynote address.
• Australasian Housing Institute Professional Excellence in Housing Awards Dinner sponsored by Housing New Zealand.
• SNUGHome display, by PrefabNZ.

Conference goals

• To articulate the beginning of a collaborative human rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi-based housing strategy for Aotearoa New Zealand.
• To encourage practitioners to put housing research and industry best practice examples into their own practice.
• To demonstrate thought leadership and influence housing policy so that conference attendees will understand the potential of research, actively seeking new research to support policy and practice decisions.
• Stakeholders will see how to activate the potential of Community Housing Providers to deliver a substantial increase in affordable housing across New Zealand.

Conference structure The three-day conference will demonstrate an ‘evidence into practice’ approach.The conference will include keynote speakers, plenary sessions, and co-creation workshops across the three days, with a final day summary session.Session formats will generally be:

• Research presentation relevant to session topic
• Case study
• Facilitated discussion on evidence into practice
• Consensus from the session, reported back to the Conference summary session.

Leveraging the conference

• Following the conference attendees should have a clearer picture of

* what needs to happen to see ‘all New Zealanders well-housed’ * how their individual and collective actions will contribute to achieving the shift

• The summary report will be presented to key stakeholders to encourage future action
• Media and social media will broaden the reach of the research and case studies to non-attending audiences before, during, and after the conference
• Attendees will engage with CHA/BBHTC newsletters and social media channels
• All attendees will have set their own goals for action after the conference
• The conference will be used as a platform to launch an ongoing speaker/event series (TBC).

Please register here. See the conference website for more information.