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The hospital told Len he’d be unable to return to his double-storey house due to the stairs, which were incompatible with his recovery.

Recognising the urgency, the Kāinga Ora placement and housing support teams worked quickly to find a suitable home.

They identified a newly finished single-level home with accessibility features such as an accessible shower and wheelchair access and arranged a viewing—allowing Len, still in hospital, to discuss its suitability with his sister Gaye.

“Hearing about the new house over the phone was a huge relief,” said Len. “I’m so grateful to Gaye and the Kāinga Ora team for making this happen so quickly.”

Once Len agreed to the move, Kāinga Ora wasted no time and movers were immediately contacted.

“We understood the urgency,” said Senior Housing Support Manager David.

“Len’s whānau supported the move so well that we were able to visit him in the hospital and complete the sign-up process while they carried out tasks in his absence.”

“Fortunately, in Hamilton we’ve delivered 206 new homes with accessibility features in the past financial year, which allowed us to act so quickly,” said David.

Just a few days after the initial call, Len moved into his new home and says the accessible features have made daily life much easier.

“I feel safe and comfortable here, and it’s been a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that everything is set up for my needs,” he shared.

Gaye also reflected on the smooth transition saying, “Kāinga Ora was incredible. They moved at lightning speed and made sure everything was perfect for my brother. We couldn’t have asked for better support.” 

Page updated: 1 October 2024

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At 14 years old, Devontae has already become something of a waste warrior in his neighbourhood.

“I’ve noticed that our environment is getting pretty messy … as generations go by, it’s just going to keep getting worse,” he says.

“So why not be the role model and try to make a change?”

Last month, the Māngere College(external link) year 10 student set out to clean up his community, joined by more than 30 of his classmates.

Students then set upon Te Ararata Stream to plant rākau seedlings, which will help the awa to thrive. All of this work is part of a bigger plan – one led out of the new Māngere Community Enviro Hub and the various groups that call it their base.

A community hub grows 

Before it became the Enviro Hub, the site contained older Kāinga Ora homes that were cleared as part of Mangere Development. An opportunity was identified to offer the section as a temporary community space until it’s needed for new housing, so McKenzie Tuala-Pine, Programme Manager – Placemaking, put a call out for ideas.

Of 12 applicants, the successful candidate was I Am Māngere(external link) – a trust formed in 2020 to empower local community groups – which worked with its partners and McKenzie to create a space that could be shared.

Today that group is Etu Rakau(external link), an organisation focused on removing and reducing waste and litter. Founder and Director Rata Taiwhanga made his start with a converted trolley – the Waste Waka – used to “play our favourite beats while picking up rubbish off the streets”.

The mission to protect te taiao (the environment) grew, with Rata now bringing schools on the journey and sharing the knowledge of his tūpuna. Working with Māngere College, he set up an educational fundraiser aimed at making enough money to buy a greenhouse for the hub.

“This is so we can start [planting] seeds at the hub and actually giving away those seeds to different whānau,” Rata says.

“It’s really important, our collaboration, it’s really what brings the community together and it’s what connects us.”

Hangi and hauora 

As well as the planting and clean-up, students learned how to pick fresh vegetables and cook with a hangi – prepped and supported by the I Am Māngere team.

“[The fundraiser] is about taking a hauora approach, so that’s looking at how can we go from picking up rubbish, to planting out trees, to feeding the people,” Rata says.

“What I’m hoping for the rangatahi to take away from today is becoming more aware of their environment. Creating environment hubs like this gives the freedom for communities to come and engage, and feel like it’s a space that’s theirs.”

For year 13 student Te Arawa, the fundraiser inspired a call to action for others to “just get out there and give it a try”.

“Coming out today made me change my look on how people treat the country,” she says. “I want to make a change to that.”

JP Puleitu, Advisor – Youth Placemaking at Kāinga Ora, says supporting the fundraiser and community spaces in development areas is “a no-brainer”.

“In a lot of the neighbourhoods and a lot of our builds, there are a lot of great grassroots groups that are coming through, but they just need that umbrella support,” he says.

“The community themselves have a lot of the solutions for their own people and their own communities, and so it’s really just [about] getting behind them.”

Page updated: 30 September 2024

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Designed and constructed by Gemscott, stage one of ‘Te Tira’ (a name gifted to the development by Ngāti Rēhia) consists of four ground-level homes and four second-level homes. The ground-level homes are built to full universal design standards, meaning they are suitable for people of all ages and abilities.

Far North District Mayor – Kahika Moko Tepania, who spoke at the opening, welcomed the new social housing.

“Initial research for our Far North Housing Strategy has shown our region has the worst quality housing in the country and hundreds of families on the Housing Register.

“Te Tira is a welcome step in the right direction to address this, and I am stoked for the whānau who will move into these homes, which are close to all the amenities of our Kerikeri Town Centre,” he said.

Kipa Munro, Chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rēhia said housing in Kerikeri is out of reach for many.

“The name Te Tira reflects the vision of the development, in that these homes are climate smart, secure and respectful.

“To be considered for one of the kāinga at Te Tira, whānau must be on the Ministry of Social Development’s Housing Register, so I encourage anyone who needs housing support to reach out to MSD to discuss whether they are eligible,” he said.

Jeff Murray, Regional Director – Northland at Kāinga Ora, said the new homes were built to high standard and feedback from locals was positive.

“Following the blessing we opened the homes and invited the community to come down and take a look for themselves. Over 100 Kerikeri locals looked through the homes and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

“Gemscott and their contractors are now hard at work on stage two of the development, which will deliver an additional 14 homes,” he said.

On completion, in early 2025, ‘Te Tira’ will include shared outdoor space, a children’s play area, a bike shed and onsite carparking.

Page updated: 27 September 2024

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Change processes proposed today may see a net reduction of 321 roles across the organisation’s urban planning and design; commercial; construction and innovation; and investment management office teams.

Kāinga Ora Chief Executive Matt Crockett says the proposed changes are aimed at ensuring Kāinga Ora can deliver on the Government’s housing delivery expectations in the most efficient way possible in the coming years.

“Kāinga Ora has scaled up over the last five years to deliver a successful and extensive build programme,” he says.

“We are now moving into a different phase where our focus is on creating a steadier state of social housing builds, alongside work to upgrade and replace thousands of homes in our portfolio.

“We need to make sure we have the right level of resourcing to match our delivery programme while maintaining focus on achieving our targets.”

The proposed changes would support an accelerated move to new construction methods, enabling state houses to be built more quickly and efficiently through the Kāinga Ora Housing Delivery System. Kāinga Ora will also continue to work with private developers to deliver homes.

“Today’s announcement starts a period of consultation where potentially impacted teams have the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal,” says Mr. Crockett.

“These proposed changes will be unsettling for our people. We are committed to supporting them through the process as best we can, and to considering all feedback they provide.

“At this stage we plan to confirm final decisions in mid-November.”

Read more on Kāinga Ora workforce changes

Page updated: 25 September 2024

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With Tamihana (Te Popoto) on guitar, ‘Waiata Wednesday’ usually begins with a rousing version of Toia Mai, and takes in feel good classics like Pokarekare Ana and SIX60’s hit, Pepeha.

For Tamihana the weekly get together at the communal space  of a Kāinga Ora complex in Auckland’s North Shore, is about sharing and connection.

“Everyone is welcome, whether you’ve lived here all your life or you’re new,” he says. That is what this is about. We hang out, we call it whakawhanaungatanga (establishing relationships). We sing waiata, have a laugh and a cup of tea.”

“It is an opportunity to connect with the whole community and learn to get on with one another.”

Established by local artist and kaiako Natanahira (hapu) to connect people with culture, and each other, the group has quicky taken off with as many as 20 regulars.

The group meets at the communal space of a recently built 88 home Kāinga Ora complex in Auckland’s North Shore.

As well as laughter, and a half time kapu tī (cuppa), there’s discussion about the meaning and origin of the songs themsleves.

“Waiata is important. It’s all part of Te Reo Māori. The songs encompass certain kaupapa (ways of doing things). We learned our culture through waiata. Our whānau gave us the reo through waiata.

“It’s also about sharing our culture with people who are new to New Zealand, and we in return can learn from them.”

For fellow Kāinga Ora resident, Paul (Ngati Whakaue), the weekly get togethers hold a special significance.

“The first week I was here we had waiata. I was a professional singer for 60-odd years but I had an accident and damaged my voice. So, now I get to come here and we just sing songs together. It’s a lovely thing to come down to, I look forward to it every week, ” Paul says.

Recently, the group were invited to perform their first ‘gig’ – singing to a hall of whānau having kai through the Communnity Life Kitchen.

Bringing song to the community is a form of service, explains Tamihana.

“It’s about doing things, that is what the group is for. It’s about giving tautoko (support) to others. I don’t know where it will lead but as long as Wednesdays keep coming around, we’ll keep turning up!” 

Page updated: 19 September 2024

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The two 3-bedroom freestanding and six 2-bedroom terraced houses are not only homes for whānau in need, but they also provided real life learning experiences for local secondary school students and nine apprentices throughout the construction.

The homes were designed to follow the contours of the land with split level living areas, plenty of natural light and outdoor areas with storage for tenants. However, Patrick Dougherty, General Manager Construction and Innovation, says it is the education opportunities that the Kāinga Ora teams involved are particularly proud of.

“It’s not easy to decide on a career path when you’re still in school, so whenever possible we help our build partners connect with local schools and host visits for students interested in a career in the construction sector,” he says.

“The Kāinga Ora apprenticeship programme works with build partners, training and pastoral care providers to help kiwis into a mix of trades. In the 12 months ending June 2024 our teams helped 262 people into apprenticeships.”

Head contractor for the Mount Roskill development, Precision Construction, currently employs 26 apprentices. During the build of the eight homes on nearly 1600m² of land, their apprentices worked on build elements that might normally be subcontracted out. They also had exposure to construction management activities like critical path planning, purchasing, leading prestart meetings and quality assurance.

Kāinga Ora also helped Precision Construction connect with two local secondary schools and ten final year students visited the development site during key build milestones. Two of the students worked alongside the construction team for a total of 12 days during the build.

Precision Construction Chief Executive Quentin Quin explains “Our business has a strong focus on helping build a strong and qualified construction workforce. We support build projects to help our apprentices get the full exposure to the construction process. Two of our apprentices achieved their qualifications during this build and were fantastic at hosting school students under the Ministry of Education Gateway programme – it was a really positive experience for all involved.

“Quality homes have been built, more of our people have qualified as builders, and there’s local secondary school students now considering construction as a career choice. It’s a full circle and foundation for success that we’re committed to support.

“We’re all pleased with the finished homes and wish the families now living in them a great new start in their Mount Roskill community.”

Read more about Kāinga Ora training and apprenticeships and the new state houses delivered in the last financial year.

Page updated: 17 September 2024

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The Kāinga Ora development, designed and constructed by Soho Group, includes 55 high-quality terrace and apartment homes, as well as a multipurpose community room.

Jeff Murray, Regional Director – Northland at Kāinga Ora, said it was a privilege to show so many people from the community through the new homes.

“We want to acknowledge everyone who came, including Mayor of Whangārei District, Vince Cocurullo, local hapū leaders from Ngati Hau and Te Parawhau, neighbours, business owners and a special acknowledgement to the children from Tiki Primary for their moving kapa haka.

“Our dedicated placements team will now work to identify those who are on Ministry of Social Development’s Housing Register that have housing needs in and around Tikipunga.

“The community will play a big part in helping tenants settle into these new homes, so it was really positive to see so many locals turn up to the opening and show their support,” he said.

Ben Noone, General Manager at Soho Group said they are proud of the Wanaka Street development – the third medium-density development the group has delivered for Kāinga Ora.

“These homes have been a real team effort, and we especially want to acknowledge the team of 40 subcontractors that have been onsite for the past 13 months getting it done.

“Not only are the homes high-quality, functional and energy efficient, they are set on a great site in a great location. We wanted to create a community not just homes, and that has been achieved by the onsite community gardens, children’s play area, and of course the multipurpose community room for resident use,” he said.

The architecturally designed homes come in a range of sizes, including 12 one-bedroom, 39 two-bedroom and 4 three-bedroom homes, suiting individuals, couples, small families, and older people / kaumātua.

The 2-level terrace homes and 3 level apartments are set across seven buildings on the former Tiki Tavern site, which neighbours Paramount Plaza and Whangarei Golf Course.

The placements process has now started, and tenants will start moving into the homes in the next few weeks.

Page updated: 16 September 2024

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Over the two years to 30 June 2026, Kāinga Ora will be adding 2,650 homes to our state housing stock and renewing almost 3,000 other state homes.

We build additional state houses based on the Government’s Public Housing Plan, which tells us how many houses are needed and where they are needed.

We also renew our existing homes, to make sure we have homes in the right locations and our homes are suitable for the people that need them. We do this through renovation, removing homes and redeveloping on the same land, or selling and replacing it with another home elsewhere.

We’ve recently received confirmation of these additional housing and renewal requirements for the next two years, including the locations of greatest need.

We have the vast majority of the required work underway, with almost 3,600 homes currently under construction or contracted for delivery in the next two years.

In the pursuit of best value decisions, we are looking at our social housing delivery plans and reassessing some projects. This includes looking at the costs and plans for over 300 proposed projects that are at differing stages.

A project can take several years from inception to completion as it is scoped, designed, planned, consented, procured, constructed and delivered. This means our pipeline of projects spans several years and it takes time to scale up or down.

The investment already made in these projects* often includes removing old social housing that is no longer fit for purpose, scoping, consenting the project to redevelop the land, and then procuring the construction work to deliver the new homes. In some cases, it also includes civil and infrastructure work to prepare the land for redevelopment. These costs are typical across the wider construction sector in the early stages of projects.

Although we mostly redevelop on land we already own, occasionally we also acquire land in areas of high social housing need so some costs have gone into purchasing sites.

Making land build-ready contributes to the overall value of the asset. The investment in this land will have future benefits as we look at the options available to redevelop it for social housing.

Working through the additional homes we have been asked to deliver and the renewal of our housing portfolio is an ongoing process. Some of the proposed projects will proceed at a future date. Others will be reworked to ensure better value for money.

As decisions are made on projects, we will inform our partners and the community.

*TVNZ incorrectly reported this cost as almost $3bn – the investment in our projects under assessment we provided to them in early September 2024 was actually only approximately $300million – this cost continues to change as decisions are made on our projects.  

Page updated: 11 September 2024

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For two whānau who moved into newly built homes in Gisborne recently, it was clear that finally having a long-term home would be good for their health.

After more than two years staying in emergency housing, dealing with a health problem, Phillip and Bromlyn never thought they would live in a place where they could feel settled.

The overwhelmed couple are very excited to have moved into a new home in Kaiti, with their move supporting the Government’s commitment to ending the large-scale and long-term use of motels for emergency housing.

“We spent two years and two months in that motel room,” says Bromlyn. “While we were very grateful to have a roof over our heads, it’s not the same as having a home.”

“I had cancer and had to have my kidney out. When I came out of hospital, I had to recuperate in the motel. All I wanted to do is have the comfort of being in my own space.”

Phillp has arthritis in both his knees which has got progressively worse while he has been in the motel. It is now at the stage where his mobility is severely compromised, and he is using a mobility scooter to get around.

“Physically and mentally being homeless is very hard on your wairua (spirit). We know there is a long waiting list and we honestly thought we would never get a home. Housing has been in the news a lot and you just don’t know where you are going to end up.”

“When Kāinga Ora rang and said they had a home for us, I just broke down and cried,” recalls an emotional Bromlyn. “I was so overwhelmed, the adrenaline hit and I don’t know what I was saying on the phone!”

“Our new place is just beautiful and close to shops, grocery stores and the doctors. I love the design, I love the storage, and I am enjoying bringing all our stuff out of storage to make the home our own.”

“We are so grateful to the builders, the trades people and all the Kāinga Ora staff who have helped us get stable place to live, they really are changing lives,” adds Bromlyn.

Phillip and Bromlyn’s neighbour, Selwyn has also had his health battles. He is visually impaired and had been living at his daughter’s severely overcrowded house.

“My life is turning around since moving into my new home, it suits my needs well and is a gift for me and for my daughter,” says Selwyn.

“I am enjoying having my own space and I have learned to navigate the new spaces now. I no longer need to work around the toys and other belongings that the rest of the family would leave around my daughter’s house.

“I am grateful for my Geneva Healthcare team who supported me in my housing journey.

“It was awesome to team with Kāinga Ora on getting such a great outcome for a person we support” says Ash Blair, Geneva Healthcare Occupational Therapist.

“We help Selwyn navigate the challenges of his limited sight. We assist with shopping and taking him to regular gym rehabilitation sessions.”

Selwyn’s goal is to become more independent. “Because my home is fenced, I can finally look into getting a guide dog”, says Selwyn. “This would mean I could get to the shops and other places on my own. Recent surgery has improved my sight somewhat, and with shops close by, I may not need a guide dog right now to get some independence. This home really is a new beginning for me.”

The six new single-storey homes were built by TW Property and Kāinga Ora purchased them once they were completed.

Over the last two months, 26 new state houses have been completed in Gisborne with individuals and families in need moving in to make them their long-term home.

Page updated: 4 September 2024

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