A sign on the empty Devon St section. Photo / Supplied
A sign on the empty Devon St section. Photo / Supplied
The Rotorua Daily Post has launched a series called Fighting for Rotorua that looks into the city's housing crisis, the motel misery and what can be done to make it better. Kelly Makiha reports.
Some Glenholme and Springfield residents are vowing to try and stop Kāinga Ora building houses for homeless people on an empty Devon St site.
More than 30 residents attended a meeting on Monday last week at the Rotorua Commercial Travellers' Club and had hoped to personally express their views to representatives from Kāinga Ora.
However, representatives from the government housing agency said they would not attend the meeting because they had no updated information to share other than what was circulated in a letter drop in July.
The residents intend to meet again next week and have invited city leaders to attend.
The Government has spent more than $60 million in Rotorua in the past three years to get more houses in Rotorua.
Kāinga Ora bought 54 Devon St for $650,000 and plans to build six two-storey homes on the 1280sq m site. Four would be two-bedroom terrace homes and two three-bedroom duplexes.
The empty section at 54 Devon St. Photo / Andrew Warner
The development cost is expected to be $4.3 million.
The letter delivered to nearby residents in July said the site had been bought to help "meet the urgent need for more warm, dry and modern homes in Rotorua".
It said the houses were well located for schools and community facilities and would be for people in need of a long-term place to call home.
It said the homes would be modern, warm, and dry and would be fully insulated and energy efficient with carpets, curtains and double glazing.
It would match the homes to people on the Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register, giving priority to those in greatest need.
No timeframes were given but the letter said it would keep neighbours informed once it had applied for resource consent later this year.
But those at last week's meeting are vowing to try and stop the development and have launched a new group called Save Glenholme.
Their main worries were safety and the types of people who could soon be their new neighbours.
Raj Kumar chaired a meeting of residents. Photo / Kelly Makiha
They asked the meeting chairman, former Rotorua Lakes councillor and Springfield Superette and Lotto owner Raj Kumar, how they could stop the development.
People at the meeting were upset representatives from Kāinga Ora did not attend.
Some told Kumar they were upset by being made to feel like "nimbys" for not wanting social housing in their neighbourhood.
However, they felt it was unfair because many of the residents had worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes and deserved to live in good areas.
The meeting agenda said they specifically wanted to ask Kāinga Ora what it would do to protect their safety, how it controlled who stayed in the homes, whether they vetted them to ensure they were not gang members or criminals and how they would know those most in need would be good tenants.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked these questions of Kāinga Ora and in a written response, Bay of Plenty acting regional director Roxanne Cribb said the organisation had been in regular contact with the meeting's organisers during the past two weeks.
She said it was made clear Kāinga Ora would not attend as is did not have anything further to share.
"...When we do have something further to share about these early plans we will be very happy to hold a drop-in session, in line with our usual practice."
She said people could still share their views directly with Kāinga Ora, and a handful of people had done so.
"We want to bring the community along on this journey and hear their thoughts about what we are proposing and we are committed to keeping the community updated."
She said their focus was on housing people and the vast majority of the 200,000 people who lived in public homes were good neighbours and members of their communities.
When problems arose, Kāinga Ora would respond promptly and seek positive outcomes for both tenants and their communities.
''We're always mindful of the wellbeing of both our customers and the community around them while meeting the fundamental need of housing for hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders," Cribb said in the statement.
She said work in Rotorua was happening quickly to get people out of unsuitable living conditions by adding more housing in a range of ways and parts of the city.
"This includes buying land to build houses on, redeveloping our own existing properties where we have older homes on large sections, partnering with others, including developers who may build homes on our behalf."
She said they varied in size from a couple of homes to the 42 homes soon to be built at the Quartz Ave subdivision in Pukehangi.
Several people at last week's meeting mentioned they had heard Kāinga Ora had bought sections or properties in Lynmore, particularly Lynmore Ave, and had similar plans to those for Devon St.
A Kāinga Ora spokeswoman told the Rotorua Daily Post it had not made any recent purchases in Lynmore.
One of the organisers of Monday's meeting, Hozumi Daiya, said another meeting would be held on November 14 and Rotorua MP Todd McClay had confirmed his attendance.
Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell, other MPs, police and council leaders would also be invited. The meeting will be from 5.30pm at the Commercial Travellers' Club.
