Whanganui Foundation announces new housing fund

Stephen Brandon has been managing the Whanganui Community Foundation since November 2017. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Whanganui Community Foundation has created a new $400,000 housing fund because housing is the foremost need in its region.

The Special Purposes (Housing) Fund was announced last week by foundation chairman Dr Mike Paki. Applications of up to $250,000 can be made when it opens on March 21.

The fund was not enough to buy a house, foundation manager Stephen Brandon said, and the foundation did not want to lend money for houses. It wanted to help organisations that were working to provide housing - perhaps by providing seed funding that paved the way to government grants - or it could fund transitional housing or social work help for the people using it.

"We are looking to be able to fund some of the gaps that might occur, things Government might not have a funding source for, but with that gap the thing can't actually grow," Brandon said.

The foundation surveyed community groups and local authorities in its Whanganui-Rangitīkei-Waimarino region last year. It asked what the biggest social problem was and where it should put its money.

"Housing came out as top," Brandon said.

Substance abuse and lack of access to health care were seen as the next biggest problems.

The fund aims to provide affordable, safe and healthy housing, especially for those most in need.

It replaces the bigger "high engagement" grants the foundation used to provide to certain groups over longer periods. The last of those was made in 2019.

Applications to the new fund can be made at any time, and it is likely to continue in future years.

The foundation's investment started in 1988, when shares in Trustbank Wanganui were sold to Westpac. The foundation is required to grow the investment in perpetuity, relative to population growth and inflation.

Any extra money is granted each year - usually about $1 million.

It had a "socially responsible" investment policy, Brandon said. In the 2020-21 year the fund increased from $46.6m to $53.2m.

The foundation sometimes gives capital grants - the most recent ones being $1m for the Sarjeant Gallery upgrade, $300,000 for the new Bulls community centre, $100,000 for the Marton playground and $300,000 for a new base for Te Ora Hou.

Its three main priorities are children under 5, at-risk youth and isolated elderly. Its commonest grants are to organisations providing medical or social support.