Talking Point: We're housing more families in Hawke's Bay

New Zealand needs more state housing. Not just in Auckland and not just in the main cities, but in smaller cities and towns like yours.

There's a pretty simple reason for this – there are more people needing a home.

In the two years to December 2017, nationally the housing register has increased by 77 per cent - from nearly 3500 people and families needing a home to 6182.

In Hawke's Bay, during the same period, the housing register more than doubled from 144 people and families needing a home to 390.

The numbers illustrate the increasing demand for state housing, but behind the figures are families and vulnerable people who need a place to call home.

If we don't build more housing then we're failing those families who are, in many cases, living in unacceptable living conditions.

At Housing New Zealand we're meeting this challenge of getting more people into more homes. We're building in the cities, but now we're concentrating on meeting demand in regional New Zealand.

We haven't had such an ambitious build programme since the 1930s and 40s when the Government built more than 30,000 homes in less than 15 years. Many of these homes, with their typical tiled roofs and wooden cladding, have served as homes for generations of Kiwis and still do so today.

We are set to build more state houses in regions such as yours, but they aren't just houses, they're places for people in real need of a warm, dry and safe place to raise their families and a place to call home.

We know from experience that having a healthy home gives people a solid platform from which to build lives and communities.

In Hawke's Bay, we're looking to build 49 new homes, which add to the 2612 that we currently own in Hastings and Napier.

These modern homes are quite different from your typical state house built last century. The new, low-maintenance homes will be fully insulated, with carpets, curtains and double glazing and easy-to-maintain sections.

We're looking to build on both vacant land and in order to better utilise our existing properties, on land where we already have a house. Any building activity can have an impact on neighbours and our tenants and that is why we are keeping them up to date with what we're doing along the way.

We will begin constructing these new homes this month and we should have people moving in by mid-year, in time for winter.

These new houses have changed in design and materials since the typical state house of mid-last century, but they serve the same important purpose.

We look forward to hearing from new tenants as they move into their new, modern homes and we hope that you welcome these new families into your community.

*Greg Groufsky is deputy chief executive of Housing New Zealand.

*Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz