Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visited Wairoa on Thursday with a group that included Napier MP Stuart Nash and East Coast MP Kiri Allen. Photo / Wairoa Star
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visited Wairoa on Thursday with a group that included Napier MP Stuart Nash and East Coast MP Kiri Allen. Photo / Wairoa Star
A Wairoa iwi trust has announced it will underwrite $2.5 million to enable urgent fixes to continue on hundreds of flood-damaged homes.
Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa’s announcement coincided with a long-awaited visit from Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to the town, the first time since Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawke’s Bay.
Hipkins visited two Wairoa marae on Thursday with Napier MP Stuart Nash and Tairāwhiti MP Kiri Allan.
Taihoa Marae was one of the first marae to take in whānau during and after the cyclone and floods in Wairoa, and Hinemihi Marae is acting as a recovery hub for the community.
RNZ reported that Wairoa residents said they were relieved the PM had finally made it and were glad they had not been forgotten about.
However, they also wanted more reassurance and support for the clean-up efforts and for accessing long-term accommodation.
Leon Symes, chairman of Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa, said the underwriting would play a crucial part in the recovery as it would address urgent housing issues.
“Iwi have demonstrated the ability to respond more quickly to the needs of our entire community. Our whānau can’t wait.
“The $2.5m is needed now while we work with others to find the rest of the repair costs estimated to be at least $10m.”
The underwrite would come out of the iwi’s financial redress which was part of their 2016 iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa Treaty settlement with the Crown.
The trust said it anticipated the money will be recuperated in time through insurance claims and flood relief funding.
Symes said over 300 residential properties, which is 30 per cent of the local housing stock, were affected, with hundreds of whānau displaced.
“As a community, predominately Māori, we suffer some of the highest health and social inequities. The impact of Cyclone Gabrielle means addressing these will take even longer.”
He said Wairoa needed a locally led solution, which would be enabled through the government partnership to address the needs of the community.
“This is the time for our government partner to act for the community of Wairoa.”
Leon Symes, chairman of Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa, with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in Wairoa on Thursday. Photo / Wairoa Star
Wairoa mayor Craig Little told Checkpoint housing remained the top priority.
He said as far as housing was concerned, work was needed on a major railway bridge so that modular housing could be brought down from Gisborne.
Little also revealed that there were about 60 to 70 sections ready to be built on, so these could be bought and made available for intense housing, with as many as three houses on each section.
