“So the central government can step in here and change the legislation to ensure that councils, local territorial authorities, can actually use this mechanism all around New Zealand. At the moment they’re not able to do that because they’re too scared it’s not legal.”
Thorp is also pushing for the Government to provide renewed assistance for Habitat’s ongoing work. Habitat is currently finishing up the delivery of its contracts under the Progressive Home Ownership Fund, which gave it a 50% interest-free loan for 15 years enabling it to get many more families into homes.
The Government is also helping with Habitat’s work in the Pacific, which Thorp says has “become quite a large piece of work” for it in recent years.
“We have a government contract with the New Zealand Government for $9.5 million over five years for work in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga,” he told Real Life.
“The wonderful thing about that is that for every $1 you give, the Government will give $4. So if you give $10, then we’re going to get $40 more from the Government for our programming work in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga… and you will also get a rebate on the tax.”
The organisation is also working closely with BNZ, which partners with it on a programme to make homes more habitable by offering interest-free loans for five years that allow people to afford much-needed maintenance.
Thorp says this programme can be life-changing, as seen in the case of Jane*, a mother of three young children who had inherited a house in South Auckland but didn’t have the money to maintain it.
“I walked in her house and I walked over planks, because the floorboards were completely rotten after a hot water cylinder had leaked and the particleboard had rotted away,” Thorp told Real Life.
“There was mould all over the walls, the curtains were mouldy. It was an absolutely unbelievable situation for me to walk into. You’re not going to stay healthy like that.
“So under this programme we were able to fix her floors, upgrade her bathroom, put in a second-hand kitchen, take the mould off the walls, help her to apply for the Government’s insulation programme so that she could get insulation in her roof.
“We then fitted out curtains from our curtain bank and it changed her house and changed her life. Then we got to announce a stable, warm environment for her children as they get educated.”
Habitat for Humanity is a faith-based non-profit, and while it doesn’t discriminate on that basis or proselytise, Thorp says Christianity is at the root of the organisation – and of his own life too.
“All we’re doing is trying to bring people together to help humanity,” he said.
“I know that God loves me and that makes me worthwhile as a person. He values me and he asked me to value others… forgiveness, acknowledgement and humility are really important attributes and faith brings those into my situations as a father, as a CEO, as a leader in lots of different spaces.”
He says his faith has helped him be a better leader.
“Any CEO role is kind of a pastoral role, because you actually have to look after your people. If you want your people to deliver whatever the objective of the entity is, you need to be pastoral to them.
“As a leader of the organisation, character is really important. The way you love, respect other people is incredibly important, and you can have leaders who do the opposite of that and it makes life hell going to work.
“[Some] leaders potentially don’t recognise the value of other humans, or see themselves as above them.”
- Jane is a pseudonym.
- Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
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