Rethink on state-house plan

The Talbot Park Housing New Zealand project in Glen Innes, where some private housing is being considered. Picture / Dean Purcell

New Housing Minister Chris Carter is rethinking a controversial $48 million state housing renewal project in Glen Innes.

He says he is "very sympathetic" to allowing some privately owned homes into the suburb's Talbot Park project, which had been planned as a purely state housing development.

But the rethink has failed to satisfy local critics, who say people don't want to live in areas dominated by state housing for high-needs tenants.

Housing New Zealand Corporation plans to increase the number of homes in the triangle bounded by Point England Rd, Apirana Ave and Pilkington Rd from 167 to 219.

The first of nine three-storey "star blocks" in the area, built in 1962, have been renovated and a new road has just been finished. Three-storey terrace housing and freestanding single-storey homes and duplexes are planned on the rest of the site.

The manager of the corporation's six community renewal projects, Alice Foster, told a conference in Auckland on Saturday that Talbot Park would ideally have a mix of state and privately owned homes.

She said former Housing Minister Steve Maharey decided to keep private owners out of the project because of a serious shortage of state housing in Auckland. Almost 2500 of the 4288 priority applicants waiting for state houses in June were in Auckland.

But the corporation wants a rethink.

"We have come back with overseas research to persuasively argue high-intensity [state housing] concentration is not a good thing," Ms Foster said.

"Now that we know who the Government is, we are going back to our new minister and having these sorts of discussions, so watch this space."

Mr Carter, who took over the portfolio two weeks ago, said he was very sympathetic.

"I am giving a direction to the chief executive that I am endorsing the programme that they are following, which is not having a concentration of social housing but having it dispersed with partnerships so we never again get whole suburbs of high needs," he said.

But he still had an "open mind" on Talbot Park because of a shortage of land for state housing elsewhere in Auckland.

Until recently, developers had commonly offered 20 per cent of the houses in new developments to the corporation so that state housing could be "pepperpotted" through the community. But some had stopped doing this because of the strong demand from private home buyers.

Mr Carter said developers of a huge 3000-unit private subdivision at the nearby Mt Wellington quarry site were believed to be putting covenants on land titles preventing buyers from leasing homes to Housing NZ.

"We are committed to 1000 new units a year [nationally] but we are running out of land, so somehow we have to be more creative," he said.

Ms Foster denied a report last month that only one in 10 of the people offered homes at Talbot Park had accepted places there. She said four new townhouses had been let to families who had chosen to come back to the area after their previous flats were pulled down.

"They have chosen the colour schemes and the carpets. They just can't wait to get into it," she said. "We are having no problem letting them. They love living in them."

But Tamaki College principal David Hodge, who has led opposition to intensified state housing in the area, said letting in a few private homeowners would not solve the problem of stacking up high-needs tenants in one place.

"It's fine if you keep that 20 per cent state housing ratio, but what might happen here is 60-70 per cent state to 30 per cent private," he said.

Housing Lobby spokeswoman Sue Henry said the problem was not state ownership but piling people into developments too densely. "We don't see privatising any more state land as a solution," she said.

Ms Foster said rebuilding was only a small part of the six community renewal projects from Northcote to Christchurch, which also involve better security features such as see-through fences, community-building activities such as fun days, and helping residents to get jobs.

On the Christchurch site, Aranui, Work and Income and the Christchurch City Council have posted staff in the community renewal offices to help people find work and deal with other problems.

At Talbot Park, Housing NZ itself has provided a community co-ordinator to build social networks.

Community renewal

* Northcote, North Shore: 320 homes.

* Talbot Park, Auckland: 219 homes.

* Clendon, Manukau: 540 homes.

* Fordlands, Rotorua: 159 homes.

* Eastern Porirua: 1904 homes.

* Aranui, Christchurch: 454 homes.