Sheeran Associates director Paul Sheeran has helped put almost 100 papakāinga houses on the ground. Photo / Supplied
Sheeran Associates director Paul Sheeran has helped put almost 100 papakāinga houses on the ground. Photo / Supplied
More building for Māori housing can start straight away in Hawke's Bay following the Budget's $380 million allocation, says local papakāinga construction project manager and Sheeran Associates director Paul Sheeran.
He said the results of the new funding in the region will be seen "very soon".
Sheeran Associates Ltd isa kaupapa Māori-based business providing pathways to affordable housing, including home ownership on ancestral Māori land.
"We're supporting a number of whanau at the moment and have a number of applications in with Te Puni Kokiri and it's huge," Sheeran said.
Official opening of papakāinga on the hills above Waimarama Marae, 2017. Photo / NZME
With the Te Puni Kokiri fund for housing always being oversubscribed, he said, this will enable any shovel-ready projects to go ahead.
"The infrastructure might take about six months and then you'll probably start to see some of the houses being built in the next six to eight months."
Sheeran said the $380 million will help clear the Ministry of Māori Development's housing demand backlog.
In eight years Sheeran Associates has put almost 100 homes on the ground and overseen more than 15 Māori housing projects, including two projects in Waimārama.
He said the projects have made a huge difference to Māori and the budget will help even more.
"It provides a pathway back to reconnecting with ancestral land; it provides a pathway to affordable, healthy homes and a pathway to affordable home ownership."
Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivering his Wellbeing Budget 2021 in Parliament on Thursday. Photo / NZME
The director said the papakāinga projects have anything from three to 12 houses built in the same area, creating an intentional community with whanau living next door, helping each other.
In the Budget, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the investment into Māori housing across Aotearoa will deliver 1000 new houses that will be a range of papakāinga housing, affordable rentals, transitional housing, and owner-occupied housing as well as repairing 700 Māori-owned houses.
Sheeran said the housing funding also has a "holistic benefit", providing work programmes for young Māori to enter into trades, and provides a programme for Māori business owners to get involved too.
The Eastern Institute of Technology has many trades' training and apprenticeships on offer.
Faculty of commerce and technology executive dean Fred Koenders said EIT has seen a surge in pre-apprenticeship training.
"An additional 100 students have enrolled in trades programmes at EIT in 2021 compared to 2020," Koenders said.
