Housing Provider Research Partners
This research programme is in partnership with housing providers across Aotearoa who work with us to conduct the research and provide feedback and findings in real time. Below is some information on each housing provider. The Crown Agency ‘Kāinga Ora – homes and communities’ is collaborating in various ways with several of the housing providers: Tāmaki Regeneration Programme; Eastern Porirua Regeneration; Wainuiomata Marae Trust and Wellington City Council.
Tāmaki Regeneration Company
Led by the Tāmaki Regeneration Company, Aotearoa’s largest inner city urban regeneration project covers some 880 hectares across the inner eastern Auckland suburbs of Glen Innes, Point England and Panmure. 2,500 state homes are being replaced by a mix of 7,500 public and other tenure houses. Innovations include the Tāmaki Commitment to rehousing people in the area, simultaneous neighbourhood regeneration and linked supportive housing, and allowing people to remain in the same house despite tenure changes. There is also a strong emphasis on sustainable public transport hubs and supporting employment, such as Tāmaki Insight, where tenants are trained to be social researchers and interviewers.
Eastern Porirua Regeneration
Over a 25 year period, the Government is investing $1.5 billion and working alongside the community, Porirua City Council and local iwi, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, in Eastern Porirua to upgrade around 2,000 homes and create ~1,500 new public, market, and affordable homes. The project will also upgrade infrastructure and design better neighbourhoods, including improving parks and streets, to make them safer and easier to get around and do business in.
Wainuiōmata Marae Trust
The Wainuiōmata Marae Trust has been working for over a decade to help ameliorate housing affordability and environmental issues in the community and to continue to create and maintain positive relationships with and for the people of Wainuiōmata. In the last few years, the Trust has been working through project planning, legal issues, financing, and evaluation and research opportunities to progress a papakāinga housing development.
In May 2022, the Māori Land Court approved land being used for building papakāinga housing. Kāinga Ora will partner with the Trust to design and build a sustainable development led by and for Māori. The development process and outcomes are being documented by Kāinga Ora and the PHUR research team as a case study to share the learnings and help remove barriers to better enable future papakāinga developments.
Wellington City Housing (WCC)
Wellington City Council (WCC), through Wellington City Housing, currently owns 1,900+ housing units, aiming to provide a stable platform for ~3,500 tenants.
It has been working through a $446+ million 20-year upgrade programme of its housing units, $400m of which is funded by central government (2007-2037), with a strong emphasis on higher building standards, warm, dry housing, community development and built environments designed to promote communal safety. Some future developments have been undertaken by Kāinga Ora on long-term leases.
During the 2022 Annual Plan process, Council voted to set up an independent community housing provider (CHP) to run this housing service. By July 2023, Wellington City Housing will no longer exist in its current form and will be replaced by the CHP. The CHP will be able to access the Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS) scheme for new eligible tenants. This has to date been unavailable to WCC and will mean more funding for social housing.
Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust
Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust, formed by Christchurch City Council, is the largest independent community housing provider (CHP) in Aotearoa, providing 2,300 social houses and aiming to use community housing as a platform for improving client wellbeing. Their homes are all compliant with the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act as of 2021. They have a range of wellbeing initiatives underway to support skills development within their community (such as a digital inclusion programme). They also have a strong sustainability commitment evident in their new development designs and a trail of e-car and e-bike share schemes underway in a new housing complex.
Salvation Army Social Housing
The Salvation Army, a registered community housing provider, has a portfolio of 350 existing social houses and six new housing projects underway as part of its long-term capital investments. In Auckland, they have recently built 50 units in Royal Oak, 22 units in Westgate, and 45 units in Botany and Flatbush. The Salvation Army has pastoral care teams that provide community infrastructure and wraparound services to tenants.
Dwell Housing Trust
Dwell Housing Trust (‘Dwell’) provides affordable, quality housing for people in need or on a low income, with the belief that affordable, stable, and healthy housing is a fundamental right. Dwell was established in 2013 through the merger of Wellington Housing Trust and Mahora House Inc. and is a registered Community Housing Provider (CHP) with charitable status. The total value of housing assets is $38.8 million. Dwell owns 42 homes and manages 41 homes for others, 98 tenancies overall. Another 19 homes will be completed in May 2023, and building 10 more homes is commencing.