St David's Anglican church members stage Naenae sit-in to protest housing crisis in Hutt Valley

A Hutt Valley church is staging a sit-in on vacant Housing New Zealand land as part of a peaceful protest against housing issues in the city.

Members of the St David's Anglican Church in Naenae will be camping out on the land across from their building for the weekend.

"We've just got a group of concerned citizens, really, who are deciding to try and make some of their thoughts known regarding this housing crisis in the Hutt Valley, which really is a crisis," the Rev Martin Robinson said.

Robinson said there was 17,000 sqm of vacant land which could be put to use.

He said Housing NZ boarded up and demolished scores of houses in the Hutt Valley, as the housing stock needed to be demolished, but nothing had been done to replace them with new stock.

"Housing is a basic human right, but we don't see the government responding to that need in our neighbourhood," he said.

"Instead, what we see is 100 applicants turning up to rent an ordinary house.

"We see overcrowding, with all of the flow-on health and family issues. We see the numbers of people on MSD's social housing register doubling from 107 in December 2014 to 215 in December 2016. And we see 94 of these are for Naenae."

Robinson said eight housing units were demolished in the area across from their church, and nothing had been done to replace them.

"The same has happened on Naenae Rd, and on an epic scale throughout the neighbouring Epuni. By way of contrast, during that same period, we as a church have built four houses with our own limited resources: two of these on the church land itself."

Robinson said the protest would be "peaceful".

"We're simply moving on to some vacant Housing NZ land which is across from our church here in Naenae on Seddon St.

"We're just camping on the site for the weekend and during that time there'll be a range of activities on site."

Church members were hoping to have discussions with passers-by and speak to people who had their own horror stories about housing.

"The ball has been dropped for so long," Robinson said.

"We're just hoping - wanting - our government to consult with the relevant agencies to have, I guess, everyone come to the table in an equal position, but to really hear the needs and to therefore create something which really works, and in that case, everyone wins."