Elderly in need win three tiny homes in Age Concern Rotorua ballot

“Praise the Lord.”

These words were just one of the exclamations by three elderly residents as their dreams of warm, dry homes came true yesterday morning.

The Rotorua locals were each allocated by ballot one of three tiny homes in Age Concern Rotorua’s first pocket-sized neighbourhood for elderly in need.

Two of the new tiny home residents wished to remain anonymous due to the circumstances around their current living situations.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and grateful,” one woman told the Rotorua Daily Post.

“This kind of thing never happens to me.”

The third tiny-home-winner, 81-year-old transport company driver Warrick Pryce, heard the news while on a train up from Christchurch.

“I’m quite chuffed,” Pryce said.

Warrick Pryce, 81, said the main thing he wanted was a warm, dry place to live. Photo / Andrew Warner

“I just put my name down and thought, ‘We’ll see’.”

Pryce said he would wait to see the tiny home before thinking about how it could change his life.

“I’m hoping it’s something warm and dry. That’s the main thing.”

Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O’Rourke said the three tiny homes were being constructed in Whangārei and relocated to a 511sq m section in Ngongotahā, hopefully in June.

Each of the three ballot winners would then be able to live in a new, healthy home for the cost of insurance and rates.

“We’re hoping the rent will not be any more than $100 a week.”

But O’Rourke said he had been dreading yesterday’s ballot because there were not enough new homes for the 10 people who had entered it.

“There are some really good people who have missed out.”

Age Concern Rotorua hopes more pocket neighbourhoods like this section of three tiny homes will be constructed.

O’Rourke said each of the 10 elderly people who had entered the ballot were members of Age Concern who did not own their own homes.

Some were couch-surfing, while others were living in caravans.

“We’re hoping that the model of the pocket neighbourhood is going to be continued on,” O’Rourke said.

“Once people see it, I’m hoping they ask us to do more.”

Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O'Rourke drew the names of the three tiny home residents yesterday. Photo / Andrew Warner

It comes after news that the rising cost of living is forcing desperate elderly people to live in their cars or stay in overcrowded homes with whānau as more people retire without owning a home and are trapped in a competitive rental market.

Social agencies said the lack of elderly housing was a hidden crisis, and those asking for help are the tip of the iceberg.

O’Rourke said lack of funding was the main issue facing Age Concern Rotorua’s plans for more tiny home solutions to the housing shortage.

“We were lucky enough to have the funding for this project through the sale of our Eruera St house, and that money was used to buy the section, buy the houses and set things up.

“The Age Concern council decided that rather than have the money sit in the bank, we would spend it on housing for the elderly, and that’s what we’ve done.”

O’Rourke hoped to be able to gain more funding to continue building pocket neighbourhoods in the future.

“I have been offered a section. At this stage, we won’t buy houses to put on [that property], but we can lease houses, and the people who go in those can lease them back to us.”