Members of Hawke's Bay's Hohepa community who have been forced to move following threat of climate change. Photo / Hohepa Hawke's Bay.
Members of Hawke's Bay's Hohepa community who have been forced to move following threat of climate change. Photo / Hohepa Hawke's Bay.
The Hohepa community in Hawke's Bay is shifting inland, its more than 60 intellectually disabled residents forced to move because of the threat of climate change.
The organisation has been based at its substantial Clive coastal site since 1960, four years after it opened in Hawke's Bay, but most residentswill now be moved to its other site in Poraiti.
Thirty carer staff will follow them.
It's a move that will take five years and $10.5m to do, and Hohepa business manager Neil Kirton told Stuff it hadn't been an easy decision to make.
"The threat of inundation from sea rise and flooding due to climate change is very real, and we have a responsibility to our residents."
The Hohepa site, pictured, is near the mouth of two large Hawke's Bay rivers. Photo / File
Hohepa will keep its block of land off State Highway 2, just north of Clive as well as its herd of cows and its award-winning cheese making facility, and offices.
