New Ground Broken with Social Housing in Waterview

Te Whānau o Waipareira breaks new ground with Social Housing in Waterview

Today marks the commencement of a large social housing complex build in Waterview. This exciting initiative is a joint venture between Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust and Ngāi Tai, and marks the fruition of a project that has been six years in the making.

Te Whānau o Waipareira has been contracted as the developer to build on behalf of Housing New Zealand over a three year period.

Waipareira CEO John Tamihere says “Today is a great day for Te Whānau o Waipareira, with our elders blessing the turning of the soil for the building of the first of 120 houses for state tenants in social housing. Housing in Auckland is just unaffordable for the low-incomes our people are on so we have to get our people into warm fit-for-purpose houses.” Tamihere notes that the standard of rental housing is extraordinarily poor “he health of our children, and therefore the education of our children, is badly affected when they are off school, which impacts their parents when they are off work.”

There will be a mix of terrace and apartment block-style dwellings with a spread of one bedroom, two bedrooms and three bedroom houses across the whole site.

The estimated cost for building these houses is $54 million and will see the employment of Māori trade trainees and apprentices from West Auckland to help build the houses over the three-year contract.

Whānau wanting to get into this housing will need to be registered on the Housing New Zealand State Housing waiting list. All the housing will be for rentals, and tenants will pay 25% of their gross income, whatever that amount may be

The first units will be completed in 2018.

ENDS

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