Tiny homes for the homeless: Recycling Auckland's old state houses

Thousands of state homes in Auckland's Tāmaki region will make way for new builds over the next 20 years. A Māori business, a church and a government agency are stopping them from going to landfill.

On a drizzly morning in Auckland, an old brick-and-tile state house is being taken apart.

Apart from the banter and hum of six men working, the air is still on 5 Tuakiri St in the eastern suburb of Point England. There are no diggers on site.

"We start early in the morning, we have a toolbox, talk about what we do for the day, hazards for the day, controls we've got in place," says John Kerr, team leader and owner of Safety 1st Removals.

"We're all [rugby] league fans so we talk a bit of league, and then we start work."

The work here is deconstruction, the process of dismantling buildings to recover as much material as possible for reuse or recycling.

Number 5 Tuakiri is one of 2500 state houses in Auckland's Tāmaki region - made up of Point England, Panmure and Glen Innes - that will make way for 10,500 new builds over the next two decades as population growth intensifies the need for housing in New Zealand's biggest city.

A pilot project is working to repurpose all 2500 of them.

Where possible, houses will be relocated and refurbished to healthy homes standards and given to community groups and other spaces as housing, says Tara Moala, the woman behind the project at Tāmaki Regeneration Company, an agency owned by the Government and Auckland Council.

If relocation is not suitable, the house is dismantled and the materials salvaged for reuse or recycling in the community, whether it's wood, windows, doors, or door frames. Even appliances.

"Because they have to go, why not make some amazing things out of them?" Moala says.

Her team is working with Kainga Ora on the next phase of the pilot, which will see 20 homes repurposed, four of them for deconstruction.

John Kerr of Safety 1st Removals and Tara Moala of the Tāmaki Regeneration Company are giving new purpose to old state houses. Photo / Michael Craig

"It's easier deconstructing a house than building a house." Photo / Michael Craig

Left to right: Curtis Edmonds, Jordan Tui, Desmond Toofohe, and Lexus Stevens of Safety1st Removals. Photo / Michael Craig