Social housing plan approved

Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro. Photo/File

Tauranga City Council has granted consent for a transitional housing development in Papamoa which will see about 80 local families housed every year.

The site works at the Opal Drive site will begin in early September, with the first homes likely to arrive on site in late September and the full site up and running by December. Changes to the original plans, such as shifting two driveways from Doncaster Drive to Opal Drive, have been made in response to community feedback.

"We've worked really hard to bring our innovative transitional housing model to Tauranga, so I'm pleased to see these plans come to fruition and local families receiving the help they need," Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro said.

"The Ministry of Social Development will be partnering with the Tauranga Community Housing Trust to help provide support for families living in the homes.

"These will be families who have found themselves without somewhere secure and stable to live. They may have been in an overcrowded living situation, or unable to find somewhere affordable to live.

Tauranga Community Housing Trust is a longstanding Bay of Plenty provider of housing and housing-related services and will provide tailored wrap-around support to the families at the Opal Drive development.

"Providers like Tauranga Community Housing Trust, Te Tuinga Whanau and The Salvation Army are providing locals with both housing support and also tailored help to address other challenges our families face - from budgeting and parenting advice to cooking lessons and cultural and community connections.

"Earlier this year we announced our plans to bring 68 transitional housing places to Tauranga and Papamoa, and we are on track to deliver this by the end of the year.

"These places are in addition to the 150 social houses we're planning to secure in the area and will allow us to help 272 local people and families every year," Mr Ngaro said,

"This Government is the first to invest in transitional housing, and it is making a very real difference to the hundreds of Kiwi families who've been helped so far."

Accessible Properties chief executive Greg Orchard said he welcomed the announcement the Government was supporting the construction of an additional 19 transitional houses in the Tauranga region.

"Transitional houses are a vital first step for moving people out of homelessness.

"But equally important is ensuring there is sufficient long-term social housing available for people to move on to - otherwise the pipeline gets clogged."

Accessible Properties planned to build another 153 homes in Tauranga to continue to grow the number of social homes in the region.

Accessible Properties acquired more than a thousand homes in Tauranga on April 1 as part of the Government's social housing reform programme and was the first Community Housing Provider to be selected for a large scale housing transfer.