Rotorua Lakes Council may renovate 23 empty pensioner units, lease full portfolio to community housing provider

Rotorua Lakes Council is looking at options for the future of its pensioner housing portfolio, which includes the Rawhiti flats. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua’s council is considering spending $1.6 million to get 23 empty pensioner units to a tenantable standard before leasing its full portfolio to a community housing provider.

Councillors will this week decide whether to approve a staff recommendation to add $1.1m to about $500,000 available to renovate the homes, valued at $25m.

Rotorua Lakes Council says its portfolio of 152 units costs about $1.3m a year to manage. The 23 vacant units would need a full refurbishment, costing on average $60,000 each.

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The recommendation will be discussed at the Community and District Development Committee meeting on Wednesday.

If approved, the work would be done over two years from 2024 and involve community and tenant consultation.

It comes after Local Democracy Reporting shared the experience of a council tenant who waited two years for a window to be replaced while the new one sat in a vacant unit two doors down.

The number of vacant units had increased since March, when the council said 20 had been empty for up to nine months.

The meeting agenda noted leasing the homes to a community housing provider would allow tenants to get an income-related rent subsidy. Mayor Tania Tapsell had formally requested an allocation for this from central government.

Rotorua Lakes Council owns 152 pensioner units, of which 23 are empty and need renovations. Photo / Laura Smith

Leasing the housing was expected to provide opportunities for growth in the portfolio, ensure it was financially sustainable, provide greater support services for vulnerable tenants and ensure ongoing housing security for existing tenants.

The agenda also noted the potential impact on existing tenants and proposed they be consulted, and said they have been made aware the council is considering options.

In 2017, the council considered selling the units to a community housing provider but found the market value could not be achieved.

In 2018, it received two leasing proposals from community housing providers but neither met council requirements.

At the time, former Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said a community housing provider could achieve “more and better” pensioner housing with access to wraparound health and social services.

Pensioner Mary Smith has lived in the council’s Rawhiti Flats for about seven years.

Mary Smith had new windows installed at her council pensioner home within a week of a Local Democracy Reporting story on her two-year wait. Photo / Andrew Warner

Smith recently spoke to Local Democracy Reporting about her two-year wait for new windows.

She said on Monday she had not yet been contacted about the new proposal.

She said the rent under the council was affordable and was worried it could increase under a new provider, but she also believed tenant concerns may be heard quicker.

A council spokesman told Local Democracy Reporting staff delivered letters to all tenants on October 18.

Rotorua Age Concern manager Rory O’Rourke, who has previously expressed disappointment at the number of vacant flats during a “dire” housing crisis, said on Monday the organisation would be “fine” about a lease arrangement if the council paid for the renovations.

Affordable pensioner housing was needed for the growing number of over-65s who did not live in a home they owned, he said.

The council’s housing waitlist is capped at 40 people.

Leasing to a community housing provider was the recommended option, but councillors would also consider whether to: stick to the status quo; sell the portfolio to a community housing provider; establish a new community housing provider entity or contract a third party to manage the pensioner housing portfolio.

Staff also recommended changing the criteria for pensioner housing eligibility.

The council was contacted for comment and with questions including why previous discussions around potential leasing did not progress.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.

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