Millions for pool of state houses

Coming sooner or later - thousands of new homes for Auckland.

Two plans outlined in the Budget will develop the region's housing stock rapidly in the next few years.

One involves giving Auckland 2400 of the 3288 new state houses to be built or acquired for $130 million in the four years from July 1.

The other Budget initiative is to transfer $54 million worth of Defence land at Hobsonville Air Base to Housing New Zealand.

Housing agencies have welcomed the plan to add to the Auckland housing stock because about 5000 people are on the state house waiting list.

Refugee and Migrant Service Refugee Resettlement co-ordinator Jenni Broom said it was always hard to find homes for the 750 refugees New Zealand accepted each year under the United Nations quota. About 60 per cent were placed in Auckland to be near other people from their countries.

"There are not enough houses close to each other to provide that strong sense of ethnic support," she said. "I welcome the expansion of resources."

Warren Coley of Northcote's De Paul House, which provides emergency housing for eight families, said it took longer to find permanent homes for families on the North Shore than in other parts of Auckland because of a shortage of public housing on the Shore.

"They are homeless for various reasons. The main reason is that they have no financial support," he said.

"They have come from overcrowding situations and the odd one living in cars or garages, and because of their financial situation they simply can't afford the current [private] rentals."

Housing New Zealand has built or acquired a net 714 extra homes in Auckland in the year ending on June 30. It expects to add 668 more in the next year, 742 in 2006-07, 483 in 2007-08 and 515 in 2008-09.

Auckland Regional Council demographer Stephen Horsley said the average of about 600 a year represented about two weeks' supply in a region growing by 12,000 households a year.

At the end of last month Housing NZ had 28,419 homes in Auckland, including 1666 bought from Auckland City Council in 2002-03. This was 6.8 per cent of the 419,400 households in the region at the 2001 census.

Housing New Zealand spokesman Tom Bridgman said Budget funding allowed the agency to add a further 80ha to its Hobsonville holding of 31ha. The plan was to develop the land over eight to 10 years in conjunction with private developers.