Hastings tower apartments demolished to make room for new housing

Karamu Rd tower apartments are being demolished to make room for new housing. Photo / Warren Buckland

Anna Lorck has had an almost decade-long desire to get rid of “eyesore” apartment blocks on Karamu Rd.

Now almost three years after being elected as Tukituki MP, she is finally seeing what she calls the “worst of the worst state housing” in Hastings demolished.

Lorck said she is excited to see the 60-plus-year-old apartment blocks known as the Karamu Towers being pulled down to make way for new housing.

“I remember coming here one year and there being one unit that was just completely full of rubbish, It’s been a complete eyesore and we just needed it gone.”

In 2021 Kāinga Ora started investigating upgrading the tower blocks. During the investigation, it found that while they were at a level that was okay to live in for the short to medium term, they were considered earthquake-prone as well as being leaky buildings.

Due to the style of the buildings, Kāinga Ora looked into a range of options to strengthen the apartments but all options came back as uneconomic and not able to bring the buildings up to the necessary standards.

Tukituki MP Anna Lorck is happy to see, the 'worst of the worst social housing in Hastings' come down. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Kāinga Ora East North Island acting regional director, Roxanne Cribb (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga iwi) said a feasibility study was done to ensure Kāinga Ora could make the best use of the land, and a decision was made that redeveloping the site would be best and the buildings should be demolished and replaced with warm, dry modern homes.

This project has been a long time coming and wasn’t able to be put into motion until other houses were built and there were enough houses to move people out of hotels along with the people living in the tower block.

All tenants living in the Karamu Rd apartment buildings have now been rehoused, stripping of asbestos from the building is complete, and demolition of the concrete structure is under way.

Cribb said the adjoining Pattison Rd apartment blocks are also to be demolished due to their poor condition.

“The last customers will have been rehoused shortly and the removal of asbestos from these properties will begin late this month.”

Lorck was hoping the demolishment of the Karamu Towers and surrounding buildings would make way for not only social housing but affordable first homes and pathway-to-ownership programmes.

The MP said she would like to see the development split into thirds, that being a third affordable first homes, a third rent-to-own or progressive ownership, and a third-social housing.

“I’m committed to fully working alongside the community to support their views in what is a real opportunity for Hastings and affordable pathways to home ownership.”

Kāinga Ora finally tears down Karamu Rd tower apartments after years of behind-the-scenes work. Photo / Warren Buckland.

However, as the land is owned by Kāinga Ora, it will have the final decision on what type of housing will be built and wants to work closely with and listen to the local community about what they want and what is needed.

Cribb said the Karamu and Pattison Rds sites in Hastings have been used for public housing and plans are to redevelop it, building more homes to be used as public housing.

It was committed to working with Hastings Place-Based Housing Plan partners.

“Together we are looking for opportunities to increase the number of warm, dry houses for a large number of Hastings whānau who do not have a suitable place to call home.”.

Because it is in a part of the city that connects easily to jobs, schools, services, shops and open spaces Kāinga Ora wanted to make the most of the development potential of the “prime land”.

Kāinga Ora will share its initial plans with the community in the next few months.

“We want to work with the community to ensure the best possible housing and community outcome for this site,” Cribb said.

“Mixed housing that includes public and privately owned homes is something we’d like to achieve in the future and will be explored as other developments are investigated in Hawkes Bay.”

Kāinga Ora currently has 145 public homes in progress (in procurement, contracted or in construction) throughout Hastings and mixed housing that includes public and privately owned homes is something it would like to achieve in the future and will explore as other developments are investigated in Hawkes Bay.