Hawke's Bay will receive more than twice the number of newly built state houses than any other regions in New Zealand.
Yesterday Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced 49 new state houses would be built in Hawke's Bay by June this year.
The houses make up nearly a third of the 155 low maintenance and fully insulated new state houses to be built in 15 regional centres.
"This is the first step in building more new homes to help those most in need in our regions. In total, it will build more than 270 bedrooms for individuals or families in the areas where they are needed most," Mr Twyford said.
"Housing NZ will build these modern, warm and dry homes on its vacant land and on its larger properties. They will mostly consist of one or two-bedroom homes, with some larger homes."
Work was set to begin on the houses this month and it was expected people would start moving in from mid-2018.
Mr Twyford said it was the largest building initiative Housing New Zealand had undertaken outside the main centres in decades.
"If we want to reduce homelessness, we must build more state houses. If more state houses had been built in the past decade, we would not have the levels of homelessness we do today," Minister Twyford said.
Napier City Councillor Maxine Boag said the announcement was "great news".
"People are absolutely desperate here for houses at every level so anything that helps alleviate that pressure is great.
"I'm absolutely delighted the Government has given us such a high priority. We have made a lot of noise about it at every level and it's good to know someone was listening."
Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said six houses being built in Hastings were on vacant Housing New Zealand land where the original state houses were demolished.
"It will be great to see these parcels of land being redeveloped to support our urgent need for social housing."
Mayor Hazlehurst said stories of people living in overcrowded accommodation were not uncommon in Hastings, adding the announcement was a good start to address the major shortage of state housing in the district.
"New state houses will help our residents who are really struggling to find somewhere to live. I have had people coming to council pleading with me to help them find a house."
Anna Lorck, who spoke out about vacant state-owned land while standing for Labour in Tukituki at the last election, said the announcement was a good start and wanted to recognise those in the community who had raised the issue.
"It's good to see that we're now going to make use of this vacant land. This land we're building houses on has been left to rot in ruin.
"It's a start, there's more to come and we're now making use of this bare state land [when], under the National Government, there were plans to sell it."
Housing New Zealand deputy chief executive Greg Groufsky said the new houses would be constructed on vacant land and larger properties to better utilise landholdings.
"The 49 new houses will add to the 2612 properties we have in the region. We know more houses need to be built, so we're increasing the pace and supply of state housing across New Zealand.''