Hon Megan Woods

Minister of Housing

Marama Davidson 

Associate Housing Minister (Homelessness)

The biggest Transitional Housing facility outside of Auckland has opened in Wellington, providing safe accommodation and support for the capital’s homeless on their journey to long-term housing.

The Housing Minister, Megan Woods, along with Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, and Associate Housing Minister Marama Davidson (Homelessness) opened Wellington City Mission’s Te Pā Pori in the former ‘Zebra’ building on Tory Street this morning.

The Government is contributing about $15 million over 3 years to support Te Pā Pori, which will accommodate up to 100 individuals and whanau.

“The Government is committed to providing more transitional housing, with over 1000 places delivered already. This partnership with the City Mission will make a real difference to Wellington and adds up to 100 additional beds to the city’s transitional housing stock,” Housing Minister Megan Woods said.

“Partnerships between organisations like Wellington City Mission and the Government are vital to ensure transitional housing is available to those in the community who need it most.

“Te Pā Pori means a kinship of people/community and this is a great example of what can happen when we work together,” Megan Woods said.

“We need to balance the long-term goal of increasing public housing supply with the imperative to provide immediate support to whanau and individuals who find themselves without a home,” says Marama Davidson.

“Being homeless can strip people of dignity and hope. Having a safe and secure place to stay while the right support services are available is crucial to ensuring that you can transition to long term suitable housing,” Marama Davidson said.

Note:

· The Government launched the Homelessness Action Plan in February 2020 and by February this year, had delivered more than 1,000 transitional housing places.

· Other Initiatives include the $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund, of which $350 million is ring-fenced for infrastructure to enable Māori housing.

· A separate $380 million fund deliver about 1,000 new homes for Māori including papakāinga housing and repairs to about 700 Māori-owned homes.

· The Government is building more public houses than there has been in a generation – 7,671 additional public housing places since November 2017 - and is on track to deliver over 18,000 public and transitional housing places by 2024.

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