This month RNZ revealed that Northlanders had by far the longest waiting time in the country – more than 800 days – for help under the Government’s Housing First scheme.
Kawakawa Business Association chairman Malcolm Francis said the town “definitely” needed more social housing, but the Far North Holdings and Ngāti Hine Health Trust proposal was in the wrong place.
“Why would you put people in harm’s way, given that it’s a flood plain? These guys are going through protocol and saying it’s the best site that they’ve got, but there’s got to be other sites.”
Northland Regional Council hazard maps showed much of the land was a one-in-10-year flood zone.
Francis said raising the land might protect the residents, but it increased the risk to neighbouring businesses.
“They’re going to build a two-metre bund and house these people on top, but that’s going to bring more water onto the existing businesses there. They’re saying it’s only going to raise flood levels by 5 millimetres, but given the sort of weather events we’ve got coming down on us at the moment, can you guarantee it’s 5mm? I guarantee it’s not a guarantee at all.”
Francis was also concerned the homes would be built directly behind a pub.
“They’re sticking people that could be dependent or solo mothers or whatever behind the hotel. And, you know, there’s gambling and drinking and all this sort of stuff going on.”
Kawakawa Engineering owner Kevin Davidson said he was concerned about the effects on the 50-year-old business, which is across Old Whangae Road from the proposed housing complex.
“We employ a lot of people and this is going to really constrain our business,” he said.
“I do worry about these people that are going to be installed across the road from us because we’re a very noisy outfit. We run lights day and night. There’s forklifts operating so it’s dangerous. I’m also concerned that we’re putting vulnerable people behind a hotel. And I don’t see that as right.”
Kawakawa Engineering owner Kevin Davidson says his business, next to the proposed housing development, has flooded up to six times a year for the past 30 years. Photo / RNZ, Peter de Graaf
Davidson said flooding was a major problem on Old Whangae Rd.
A new stopbank was keeping smaller floods at bay but he was worried about the next big one.
“The business has been flooded for the last 30-odd years up to six times a year. This issue is not going away. It seems to be getting worse, if anything, with the climate changing to be warmer and heavier rainfalls.”
He said a rethink was needed.
“There’s miles better places to build these houses. We have vacant land by the hospital, we have a huge area of domain land within the town boundaries. Why they’re focusing on a scrap of land that floods behind a hotel and putting vulnerable people in it is beyond belief.”
Far North Holdings chief executive Andy Nock said the units, in six two-storey blocks, would be a mix of affordable rentals aimed at low-income workers and kaumātua and kuia flats.
They would ease a critical housing shortage and help the council secure $25.6m from the Government’s Infrastructure Acceleration Fund to upgrade Kawakawa infrastructure which he said was “bursting at the seams”.
To claim the full amount, 180 new homes would have to be built in Kawakawa by 2030.
Nock said the flood risk would be addressed by raising the land by 1.8m, above the one-in-100-year flood level.
Many urban areas in Northland, including Whangārei’s city centre, were in one-in-100-year flood zones.
“It’s simply a matter of adapting to those changing circumstances, which is why we’re raising the site. If you think back a few years we had to do the same when we built the library in Kawakawa. We raised it up and have no issues at all with flooding.”
If it goes ahead, the social housing complex will be built on vacant land between the Hunter Star Hotel and the Waiomio Stream. Photo / RNZ, Peter de Graaf
As for proximity to the hotel, Nock said Kawakawa was a small town, so any flat land near the town centre would be close to a pub.
“We thought that was outweighed by the benefits. You’ve got some lovely views over the fields, you’re right on a parkland setting, you can walk into town. And that’s what you need for kaumātua and kuia and affordable housing, you need that proximity to services.”
Nock said a resource consent application had been lodged. It would be up to the council to decide whether it would be notified.
Ngāti Hine was pursuing a separate project to build more than 100 units on hospital land up the hill, he said.
Ngāti Hine Health Trust chief executive Tamati Shepherd-Wipiiti said the units would be aimed mainly at low-income workers who struggled to pay market rents, along with some families, solo parents and kaumātua and kuia.
Changes to government funding made it financially difficult to build social housing so the new units would be affordable rentals, with rents set at about 80% of market rates.
The tenants would not be taken from the social housing list with categories A or B, who had the most complex needs.
The Northland Regional Council hazards map showing much of the site (centre, dark blue) is in a one-in-10-year flood zone. Photo / Supplied, NRC
There would still be plenty of support available at the health trust’s offices located straight across the road.
Shepherd-Wipiiti said the trust’s first 35 homes were built a year ago at Marohapa, in nearby Moerewa, with a wellbeing services centre in the middle.
That meant residents had access to social workers, people who could help mums with babies, health practitioners, mental health and addiction staff, and kuia and kaumātua who could help kids with homework.
“We never just build a housing development,” he said.
Unlike the planed Kawakawa complex, Marohapa was social housing – but so far there had not been a single eviction or serious social issue.
Shepherd-Wipiiti said the need for housing in the Far North was “massive”.
In Kawakawa and Moerewa it was a straight supply problem with not enough homes available, and the health trust was the only organisation doing any building, he said.
Like many towns in the Far North, Kawakawa is in dire need of affordable housing and better wastewater systems. Photo / RNZ, Peter de Graaf
Apart from the 35 already built in Moerewa and 30 proposed for Old Whangae Rd in Kawakawa, the trust was planning to build another 120 on the Kawakawa Hospital site and 30 on Mill Road.
As well as the $25.6m for Kawakawa, in 2022 the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund granted the Far North District Council $23m for infrastructure upgrades in Kaikohe on the proviso a certain number of new homes were built.
There, Far North Holdings and Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi had already completed a major social housing development on the former RSA site on Broadway, and Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi was building 100 affordable homes on Bisset Road aimed at low-income workers locked out of the housing market.
– RNZ