Elderly tenants face eviction as council scrabbles for cash

Don and Mabel Baty have lived in their Whakatane unit for nearly three decades. Photo / Alan Gibson

More than 80 pensioners may be evicted from their council-owned flats to help the Whakatane District Council face a difficult financial year in which rate rises are likely.

The council is canvassing public opinion as it considers selling its 72 pensioner flats in the small eastern Bay of Plenty town with seven flats in the nearby Murupara.

It hopes to free more than $5 million to spend on capital projects including a landfill, road maintenance and improving wastewater systems.

The tenants have not been offered anywhere else to go, but the council hopes Housing New Zealand, the Guardian Trust and iwi organisations will consider buying the properties and keeping them as pensioner housing.

The council said the houses had been identified as an amenity that could be operated more efficiently by specialist organisations.

But Lovelock Court resident David Meek said that was ridiculous.

"Some of these houses they've had since the late 60s. You'd think if they were not good in the business they'd get good by now."

The 69-year-old moved from Tauranga into his one-bedroom unit in November after the death of his 97-year-old mother, who he looked after for several years.

He said it had been hard to find somewhere with rent as cheap that would also let his 11-year-old Jack Russell terrier stay with him.

Whakatane Mayor Colin Holmes said the proposal was partly triggered by the fact the council was having a problem finding money to pay for capital projects.

It was expecting increased costs for waste management because of the forthcoming closure of the Burma Rd landfill at the end of December.

Rubbish would have to be transported to another landfill which was out of the district.

But Mayor Holmes said money raised by selling the pensioner housing could be used to help find an alternative landfill site.

"We have a number of capital projects on the agenda and we're a bit strapped for cash," he said.

The council will call for public submissions next month when it reviews its long-term plan and its funding needs for the next financial year.

It will then approach potential buyers such as Housing New Zealand to see if they are interested.

If they weren't interested the sale would be opened up to private buyers, but it was unlikely there would be much interest.

Tenants have received notification of the process and were invited to attend a question and answer session with the mayor last week.

The council charges rent in the flats at 20 per cent less than market value.

Tenants in the 28 units at Alice Stone village pay $200 a fortnight for single units and $220 for doubles.

All other Whakatane flats cost $192 a fortnight for a single and $210 for a double. Murupara tenants are charged between $92 and $120 a fortnight.

HOW MUCH, AND WHERE
* Alice Stone Flats, 65 Goulstone Rd, Whakatane, 28 units, $1.9m.
* Allandale Court, 145 King St, Whakatane, 11 units, $750,000.
* Hardy Flats, 9 Kowhai St, Murupara, 2 units, $70,000.
* Lovelock Court, 1 Spence Lane, Whakatane, 22 units, $1.5m.
* Murphy Flats, 20 Kowhai St, Murupara, 5 units, $110,000.
* Veronica Flats, 19 Apanui Ave, Whakatane, 11 units, $840,000.

OUR LIFE IS HERE, WE WON'T MOVE

Retired couple Don and Mabel Baty have lived in their council-owned pensioner flat for almost 30 years and they're not about to budge.

The modest one-bedroom unit in the Alice Stone Flats in Whakatane tells the story of a happy 65-year marriage which has produced two daughters and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Family photos and other treasures line the walls.

A small vegetable garden out the back keeps the Batys' dinners healthy.

Steel bars were put up around the small concrete veranda at the front of the unit to help 87-year-old Don after a stroke in 1987. They will now also be useful to his wife, who is recovering from a stroke three weeks ago.

The flat is close enough to the main shops that 85-year-old Mabel can ride her mobility scooter to collect the groceries and get her hair done.

The rent is cheap - $477 a month, but the council now wants to sell the flats.

The couple don't have anywhere else to go. A daughter lives on the outskirts of Whakatane, but it's too far away for them.

"It would upset everything," Mabel said. "We don't want to go there. Our life is here.

"This is just a dirty trick they're playing on old people."

Don, a World War II veteran and former sharemilker who was born in Whakatane, has not written a submission to the council about the proposed sale because he's afraid he'll use too many "bad words".

"I'm not moving, nobody can make me."