Kāinga Ora is reviewing 11 projects in Whanganui. Photo / NZME
Kāinga Ora is reviewing 11 projects in Whanganui. Photo / NZME
Eleven Whanganui social housing projects - amounting to more than 100 homes - are in limbo as Kāinga Ora reassesses their viability after a Government-ordered review of the Crown agency.
Of the more than 300 projects being reassessed nationwide, 11 are in Whanganui. Those 11 projects include 138 houses.
Kāinga Ora regional director Graeme Broderick said two of the 11 projects - 32 Delhi Ave and 101-103 Puriri St - already had resource consent and the other projects were in planning stages.
As of last month Kāinga Ora owned 597 homes in Whanganui.
“We are not worried about who provides the housing,” he said.
Whanganui MP Carl Bates.
Last month there were 270 people on Whanganui’s community housing register waiting list - down from 341 in October.
“They’ve either been put into community housing, they’ve found appropriately supported private rentals, or they no longer qualify,” Bates said.
But Labour’s spokesperson for housing, Kieran McAnulty, believed that was because community housing was harder to get into.
“They are crowing about how there are fewer people in community housing but at the same time they have made it harder to get into.
“Where are those people going to go? They’re going to go onto the street.”
McAnulty was critical of the decision to halt the Kāinga Ora projects for now.
“It is clear there is a need in Whanganui for more houses,” McAnulty said.
He said prioritising housing would help solve other issues the government was focusing on, including crime rates and education.
“Poverty and homelessness are a massive driver of mental health, drug addiction and crime, and if we want to address that, and we want to relieve pressure on our health system, we should house people. That is exactly what we were doing, and that is exactly what the government is not doing,” he said.
